Nope. Somebody's poorly installed ground for something aftermarket.

I suspected as much. The XJ used to have a CB installed before I bought it.

Where things stand now..... I have removed all carpeting and almost all plastic interior panels to expose all of the wiring harness. When I took the front carpet out several weeks ago to wash it, putting it back in was difficult. The area under the center vent and tranny tunnel is very tight. It has to be shoved way up under, almost to the firewall. I suspect that when I used a tool to try to jamb the carpet up under I may have either damaged a wire or caused a harness plug to have less than solid contact. I wiggled the harness bundle that crosses over the tunnel under the vent and now everything is working.

My solution for when I put the carpet back in is to trim/cut out the area that fits under the vent just enough to get it under the vent without having to force it in up to the firewall. I'll check in my FSM to see if the vent outlet can be removed to facilitate getting the carpet in without cutting it then reinstall the vent.

First though, I need to inspect the harness to make sure it's ok or repair any damage.

Note from DJ
I have some information about 95XJ lighting; if 95 are the same as your 96 look closely at the Dark Blue with Red Stripe wire for any bare spot that might have caused the short; it is the power wire for the lighting that didn’t work.

Thanks for the info. I will check it out.