The self-described “Christmas Lawyer,” who organized elaborate holiday displays in defiance of a former homeowners' association, is asking the nation's highest court for an opinion on the neighborhood dispute.
“Who would have thought that nine justices of the United States Supreme Court were about to sit down over Christmas and read a legal case involving a fundraising campaign to help families with children suffering from cancer that includes a camel dolly, 700,000 Christmas lights, and a children's choir,” said Jeremy Morris. “And the real Santa Claus testifies in federal court.” Fox News Digital In an email message.
Attorney Morris acquired International fame In 2015 for holding a five-day holiday light show that attracted thousands of revelers to his former home outside Hayden, Idaho, much to the dismay of some of his neighbors.
His subsequent battle with the HOA over alleged religious discrimination came to a head Ninth Circuit Court of Appealswhich earlier this year ruled partly in favor of Morris, and partly in favor of the HOA.
Jeremy Morris started his five-day Christmas light show to raise money for charity in 2014. When he moved to a new neighborhood the following year, his homeowners association tried to stop him from repeating the event. (Courtesy Jeremy Morris)
The “Christmas Lawyer” who went to war with the HOA now faces another battle – the Idaho State Bar
The HOA had until December 19 to file an objection to Morris's latest petition, but has refused to do so. Lawyer Peter Smith said this was because judges were unlikely to take up the case. the supreme court He is asked to review more than 7,000 cases each year and usually agrees to hear fewer than 100.
“(T)his issue does not merit the attention of the court given that it is an isolated dispute between the homeowner and the homeowners association,” Smith, who represents the HOA, wrote to Fox News Digital.
Origins of the Christmas Light Battle
Morris made an offer on a home near Hayden after he threw his inaugural light show at his former home over Christmas 2014.
He notified the West Hayden Estates Homeowners Association that he planned to repeat the event and the HOA immediately tried to quash the Christmas display, arguing that it likely violated three sections of the community's covenants, conditions and restrictions. The event will be very big, very loud and very bright, the council wrote in a January 2015 letter to Morris.
Importantly, the letter also considered whether “non-Christians” would be offended by the show. Morris wrote a response, arguing that nothing in the CC&Rs applied to his event and that the board was engaging in religious discrimination. His family closed the house and moved in.
The HOA Board of Directors sent this letter to Jeremy Morris in January 2015, explaining rules they believed his Christmas display violated and concern that “non-Christian” residents might object to the program. (Fox News Digital)
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When Morris began hanging hundreds of thousands of individual lights on his house Clark Griswold-style, the HOA's attorney sent him a letter threatening legal action if he hosted the event without board approval.
Morris did not back down. Spectators were greeted by musicians, a children's choir, a live nativity scene and even a camel. Morris hired shuttles to take visitors to the event, and volunteers directed the cars through the streets surrounding the house, according to court documents.
Tensions rose in the lead-up to the Morris family's 2016 show. Neighbors were accused of harassing spectators, and Morris said his family received threats, including a personal confrontation partly caught on camera in which a neighbor offered to “look after him.”
Morris said earlier Fox News Digital He did not want to take legal action and offered to waive his rights to sue if the HOA agreed to leave his family alone. He said the HOA refused, and the statute of limitations was nearly as close as the original letter.
The jury unanimously sided with Morris on the discrimination claim, but the judge overturned the verdict
Morris filed a lawsuit in January 2017, alleging religious discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The jury unanimously sided with him and ordered the HOA to pay $75,000.
But Judge P. Lynn Winmill took the unusual step of overturning the ruling and ordering the Morrises to pay more than $111,000 in legal fees to the HOA, concluding that the case was not about religious discrimination, but rather the Morrises' violation of neighborhood rules.
Morris, who has since moved from Idaho, has appealed the ruling. His case came before the Ninth Circuit in June 2020 and waited for a ruling for four years.
In 2018, a jury unanimously agreed that the HOA discriminated against the Morrises when it tried to stop their Christmas display. But the following spring, the federal judge overseeing the trial took the rare step of overturning the ruling. (Courtesy Jeremy Morris)
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A three-judge panel affirmed Winmill's reversal of the jury's verdict, concluding that a reasonable jury should not have found that the HOA's 2015 letter indicated a preference for a “non-religious individual” to purchase the Morrises' home.
But the panel also determined there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's conclusion that “the conduct of the HOA board was motivated at least in part by the Morris family's religious expression,” according to the more than 100-page ruling.
The Ninth Circuit ruling allowed a new trial, but Morris appealed to the Supreme Court instead. He has “potentially several lawyers lined up” to represent him, and said he hopes his case will appeal before judges, noting that it involves several constitutional rights.
“The right to celebrate Christmas in our family's religious tradition, to use our property to express that Christian faith tradition, and the right to have a unanimous jury verdict protected after 15 hours of deliberation — are all at the core of constitutional protections and the books of 250 years of American jurisprudence.
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Smith previously told Fox News Digital that the HOA “categorically denies that it interfered with the Morris family's right to purchase and enjoy their home free of discrimination” and “always seeks to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment for all residents.”
About 349,000 Idahoans live in neighborhoods governed by HOAs, just under 20% of the state's total population, according to 2021 data from Community Association Research Foundation.
