Christmas Lawyer Jeremy Morris files for Supreme Court review in holiday light show fight with HOA
The self-described “Christmas Lawyer,” who staged elaborate holiday displays in defiance of his former homeowners association, is asking the nation’s highest court to weigh in on the neighborhood feud.“Who would have thought that nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court are about to sit down over Christmas and read a legal case involving a fundraiser to help families with children suffering from cancer that involves Dolly the Camel, 700,000 Christmas lights, a children’s choir and the REAL SANTA CLAUS testifying in federal court,” Jeremy Morris told Fox News Digital in an email.Morris, an attorney, gained international prominence in 2015 for throwing a five-day holiday light show that drew thousands of revelers to his former home just outside of Hayden, Idaho, to the dismay of some of his neighbors.His subsequent fight with his HOA over alleged religious discrimination reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled earlier this year partially for Morris, and partially for the HOA.The HOA had until Dec.19 to file an opposition to Morris’ latest petition but declined to do so.
Attorney Peter Smith said that’s because justices are unlikely to take the case.The Supreme Court is asked to review more than 7,000 cases each year and usually agrees to hear fewer than 100.“[T]his case does not warrant the Court’s attention given it is an isolated dispute between a homeowner and a homeowners association,” Smith, who is representing the HOA, wrote to Fox News Digital.Morris made an offer on a house near Hayden just after throwing his inaugural light show at his previous home over Christmas 2014.He informed the West Hayden Estates Homeowners Association that he planned to repeat the event and the HOA immediately tried to squash the Christmas display, arguing it would likely violate three sections of the community’s covenants, conditions, and restrictions.
The event would be too big, too noisy, and too bright, the board wrote in a l...