Opinion ID: 148165
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Disposition of Permanent Injunction

Text: As was true the last time we heard this matter, the governing standard for determining whether a particular government action violates the Establishment Clause remains Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 29 L.Ed.2d 745 (1971). Despite Defendants' attempts to persuade the Supreme Court to abandon the inquiry into legislative purpose, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Lemon test remains the appropriate inquiry. See McCreary IV, 545 U.S. at 861-64, 125 S.Ct. 2722. Under the Lemon test, as originally formulated, reviewing courts must consider whether (1) the government activity in question has a secular purpose, (2) the activity's primary effect advances or inhibits religion, and (3) the governmental activity fosters an excessive entanglement with religion. Lemon, 403 U.S. at 612-13, 91 S.Ct. 2105. The touchstone of a reviewing court's analysis under the Establishment Clause requires government neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion. McCreary IV, 545 U.S. at 860, 125 S.Ct. 2722 (quoting Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 104, 89 S.Ct. 266, 21 L.Ed.2d 228 (1968)). In analyzing purpose under the first prong of the Lemon test, [t]he eyes that look to purpose belong to an `objective observer,' one who takes account of the traditional external signs that show up in the `text, legislative history, and implementation of the statute,' or comparable official act. Id. at 862, 125 S.Ct. 2722 (quoting Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290, 308, 120 S.Ct. 2266, 147 L.Ed.2d 295 (2000) (quoting Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 76, 105 S.Ct. 2479, 86 L.Ed.2d 29 (1985))). See also Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, 594-95, 107 S.Ct. 2573, 96 L.Ed.2d 510 (1987). [A]lthough a legislature's stated reasons will generally get deference, the secular purpose required has to be genuine, not a sham, and not merely secondary to a religious objective. McCreary IV, 545 U.S. at 864, 125 S.Ct. 2722. Thus, the government violates the Establishment Clause when it acts with the predominant purpose of advancing religion. Id. at 860, 125 S.Ct. 2722. Furthermore, the objective observer is considered to have reasonable memories, and Supreme Court precedents sensibly forbid an observer `to turn a blind eye to the context in which [the] policy arose.' Id. at 866, 125 S.Ct. 2722 (quoting Santa Fe, 530 U.S. at 315, 120 S.Ct. 2266). Thus, reviewing courts must look with the eye of an observer familiar with the history of the government's actions and competent to learn was history has to show. Id. (citing Santa Fe, 530 U.S. at 308, 120 S.Ct. 2266). As a consequence, the same governmental action may be constitutional if taken in the first instance and unconstitutional if it has a sectarian heritage. Id. at 866 n. 14, 125 S.Ct. 2722 (where one display has a history manifesting sectarian purpose that the other lacks, it is appropriate that they be treated differently, for the one display will be properly understood as demonstrating a preference for one group of religious believers as against another). As an initial matter, given that Defendants' brief challenges only the permanent injunction against the Foundations Display, we affirm the permanent injunction as to the first and second displays. We further find that the district court did not err in permanently enjoining the Foundations Displays based on its finding that Defendants' actions in posting these displays continued to violate the Establishment Clause as of its September 28, 2007 order. The district court properly found that no facts affecting the purpose analysis had changed between the Supreme Court decision finding an improper religious purpose in June of 2005 and the filing of the motions for summary judgment on remand in January and February of 2007. In that time, Defendants made no changes to the content or context of the Foundation Displays, nor did they pass any new resolutions concerning the purpose of the displays. The Supreme Court found the content of the Foundation Displays, in conjunction the evolution of evidence, to reveal Defendants' religious purpose in posting the displays. According to the Court, the puzzling choices that the counties made concerning which documents to include in the displays and which documents to omit would probably lead an objective observer to suspect that the Counties were simply reaching for any way to keep a religious document on the walls of courthouses constitutionally required to embody religious neutrality. McCreary IV, 545 U.S. at 873, 125 S.Ct. 2722. [4] Likewise, on remand, the objective observer who has reasonable memories would have seen the same Foundations Displays posted in the courthouses with the same set of resolutions authorizing the displays, and would have instantly recognized the same religious purpose that Defendants articulated during the previous round of litigation. See also Santa Fe, 530 U.S. at 315, 120 S.Ct. 2266 (holding that a school district's history of non-compliance with the Establishment Clause must be considered in determining whether the school district's latest iteration of the challenged policy was constitutional). Defendants attempt to argue that because the 2005 resolutions, which adopted educational purposes for the Foundations Displays and repealed the 1999 resolutions containing explicit religious purpose statements, were passed after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments, the Supreme Court did not have a chance to adequately consider the context of the 2005 resolutions or their effect in eradicating the improper religious purpose. However, despite the fact that the counties passed these resolutions after briefing and oral argument, the Supreme Court still considered them in deciding that the counties had not eliminated the improper religious purpose. In the context of the overall evolution of the displays, the Supreme Court found that the counties' new unwritten statements of purpose were presented only as a litigating position and that the new 2005 written resolutions were acts of obviously minimal significance in the evolution of the evidence. McCreary IV, 545 U.S. at 871, 872 n. 19, 125 S.Ct. 2722. See also Adland v. Russ, 307 F.3d 471, 481 (6th Cir.2002) (finding that Kentucky's clarification of its Ten Commandments display only after it was in the midst of litigation was probative of the Commonwealth's religious purpose). In support of their argument that the 2005 resolutions evince a secular purpose, Defendants argue that the Supreme Court merely mentioned the 2005 resolutions in a footnote and that a reviewing court should generally defer to a legislature's stated intent unless it is determined to be a sham. But Defendants have failed to show why the district court should have attributed more significance to the 2005 resolutions than did the Supreme Court in determining the purpose of the displays. The Supreme Court considered the 2005 resolutions when the Court made its decision, and the Supreme Court's assessment of the 2005 resolutions became the law of the case, which we are obligated to follow. See Niemi v. NHK Spring Co., Ltd., 543 F.3d 294, 308 (6th Cir.2008) (citing Scott v. Churchill, 377 F.3d 565, 569 (6th Cir.2004); Rouse v. DaimlerChrysler Corp. UAW, 300 F.3d 711, 715 (6th Cir.2002)) ([u]nder the law-of-the-case doctrine, rulings made at one point in the litigation should continue to govern in subsequent stages of that litigation). The district court was in no position on remand to assume that the Supreme Court did not do its job and did not afford the resolutions the proper weight. The district court was correct to take its direction from the Supreme Court, not from Defendants' bare assertion that the 2005 resolutions eradicated the improper religious purpose. Lower courts are obligated to follow Supreme Court dicta, particularly where there is not substantial reason for disregarding it, such as age or subsequent statements undermining its rationale. United States v. Marlow, 278 F.3d 581, 588 n. 7 (6th Cir.2002) (citing Gaylor v. United States, 74 F.3d 214, 217 (10th Cir.1996) (this court considers itself bound by Supreme Court dicta almost as firmly as by the Court's outright holdings, particularly when the dicta is recent and not enfeebled by later statements); McCoy v. Mass. Inst. of Tech., 950 F.2d 13, 19 (1st Cir.1991) (federal appellate courts are bound by the Supreme Court's considered dicta almost as firmly as by the Court's outright holdings ...)). Although the Supreme Court made clear that the counties' past actions do not forever taint any effort on their part to deal with the subject matter, McCreary IV, at 874, 125 S.Ct. 2722, Defendants offered no new facts on remand that show that their purpose had changed from the one that the Supreme Court found to violate the Establishment Clause. The four changes cited by Defendants are not genuine changes in constitutionally significant conditions. Id. First, Defendants' distinction between the content of the second and third displays does not govern whether the legislators had an improper purpose in hanging the displays and, in any event, those distinctions existed before the Supreme Court issued its decision. Second, the fact that more time has passed since the Supreme Court decision is meaningless in this case, because Defendants have spent the time since the Supreme Court decision continuously seeking to accomplish their initial purpose of posting the Ten Commandments as a religious document. Unlike a case in which the passage of time might have some significance, there has been no dormant period here; Defendants have continuously sought to defend their actions and accomplish what they initially set out to do. Third, the change in government personnel is irrelevant, because the objective observer test does not encompass judicial psychoanalysis of a drafter's heart of hearts. Id. at 862, 125 S.Ct. 2722. Finally, the two sets of new government resolutions are not new: the 2005 resolutions were enacted before the Supreme Court's decision and deemed of minimal significance by the Court, and the 2007 resolutions were passed more than a year after the close of discovery in response to the district court's finding that the posting of the Foundations Displays continued to violate the Establishment Clause. Thus, the district court properly found that no facts changed on remand that would affect the Supreme Court's analysis. Furthermore, even if this Court were to consider the 2007 resolutions, which were adopted after and in direct response to the district court's finding that Defendants continued to advance a religious purpose and more than a year after the close of discovery, it is clear that these resolutions, like the previous statements of purpose, were adopted only as a litigating position. These resolutions represent Defendants' latest effort in a long line of attempts to conform their conduct to the requirements of the Constitution after adverse court rulings. See Santa Fe, 530 U.S. at 315, 120 S.Ct. 2266 (noting that the case at issue was the latest step in developing litigation and refus[ing] to turn a blind eye to the context in which [the policy of prayer at football games] arose in finding that this policy was implemented with the purpose of endorsing [religion]). Thus, like the 2005 resolutions, the 2007 resolutions provide little evidence that Defendant's actual purpose has changed and are of minimal significance in light of the evolution of the evidence. See McCreary IV, 545 U.S. at 872 n. 19, 125 S.Ct. 2722. The fact that this Court has found since the Supreme Court decided McCreary that two counties did not have an impermissible religious purpose in posting displays identical to the Foundations Displays at issue does not affect our finding that the counties in this case have still not presented a valid secular purpose. See ACLU of Ky. v. Grayson County, Ky., 591 F.3d 837 (6th Cir.2010); ACLU of Ky. v. Mercer County, Ky., 432 F.3d 624 (6th Cir.2005). The Supreme Court in McCreary noted that the same government action may be constitutional if taken in the first instance and unconstitutional if it has a sectarian heritage. McCreary IV, 545 U.S. at 866 n. 14, 125 S.Ct. 2722. Unlike the extended history of sectarian purpose here, in Mercer there was only one display, one authorizing measure, and one implementation, all of which demonstrate a secular purpose. 432 F.3d at 631. Likewise, the majority in Grayson characterized the history of the display as evidencing a predominantly secular purpose. See Grayson, 591 F.3d at 849 (As in Mercer County, the approval of the display in Grayson County was not attended by a history evidencing a predominantly religious purpose. There were no earlier displays nor were there any earlier resolutions indicating an avowedly religious purpose.). While there is significant evidence in the Grayson record that Defendants' predominant purpose, as observed by an objective observer, was to post the Ten Commandments as a religious text, we are bound to interpret Grayson in a manner that does not conflict with the Supreme Court's decision in McCreary. [5] Thus, given the lack of the same type of extended sectarian history in Mercer and Grayson, these cases are distinguishable from the instant case. Further, unlike in Grayson and Mercer, the Supreme Court in McCreary has definitively found that the display at issue violates the Establishment Clause, and we are obligated to follow that precedent if no constitutionally significant facts have changed. Because the Supreme Court found that Defendants acted with the predominant purpose of advancing religion in displaying each of their three Ten Commandment displays in the county courthouses and Defendants continued to exhibit the same purpose when the district court issued its September 28, 2007 order, Defendants' action in posting these displays violated the Establishment Clause. Thus, Plaintiffs have established that they suffered a constitutional violation and will suffer continuing irreparable injury if the violation continues. The fact that Defendants seek to minimize the residue of religious purpose does not mean that Plaintiffs do not suffer continuing irreparable injury so long as the display remains on the walls of the county courthouses. Thus, there is no adequate remedy at law, and Plaintiffs have demonstrated that they are entitled to a permanent injunction. Accordingly, the district court erred in declining to enter a permanent injunction against Defendants in its September 28, 2007 order after finding that Defendants had violated the Establishment Clause. However, the district court rectified that error by properly enjoining Defendants from posting the displays in its August 4, 2008 order.