I don't want to sound pusillanimous during the Christmas season,  so don't think I am.  What we have here, it appears, is a neighborhood crank who, for whatever reason,  decided to outrage the community.  Now the story is all over the world, and some  felching  lawyer at the ACLU is donning his bib.  I thought, "WWHHIMCNWIWAK?"  (What would have happened in my Chicago neighborhood when I was a kid?). 

Tim's dad, who owned the Shell station, would have gone over there and asked him to take it down,  The guy would have refused, and you could hear the cussing even with the windows closed.  The next morning the guy's car aerial would have been broken off, tires flattened, hub caps stolen, and every window in his house egged, or splattered with dog shit.  The Santa would have disappeared.  The guy would not  replace it. Next summer he would come to the neighborhood picnic. 

Federalism.