Court Opinion

ID: 9366814
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-28 01:00:22.549723+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:55.071867
License: Public Domain

Case: 21-50469     Document: 00516626189          Page: 1    Date Filed: 01/27/2023

           United States Court of Appeals
                for the Fifth Circuit                                United States Court of Appeals
                                                                              Fifth Circuit

                                                                            FILED
                                                                     January 27, 2023
                                   No. 21-50469                        Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                            Clerk

   Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc.,

                                                             Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                       versus

   Greg Abbott, Governor of the State of Texas, Chairman of the State
   Preservation Board; Rod Welsh, Executive Director of the State
   Preservation Board,

                                                        Defendants—Appellants.

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Western District of Texas
                            USDC No. 1:16-CV-233

   Before Richman, Chief Judge, and Higginbotham and Elrod,
   Circuit Judges.
   Jennifer Walker Elrod, Circuit Judge:
          This case concerns the Texas State Preservation Board—an often un-
   noticed state agency charged with preserving and maintaining the Texas Cap-
   itol and its grounds. In 1987, the Board issued a regulation known as the Cap-
   itol Exhibit Rule. Under that rule, members of the public could submit an
   exhibit for display in the Capitol, provided the submission met certain unde-
   manding requirements and be sponsored by a qualifying state official.
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                                    No. 21-50469

          In 2015, Governor Greg Abbott directed John Sneed—then the exec-
   utive director of the Preservation Board—to remove an exhibit submitted by
   Appellant Freedom from Religion Foundation. It is not seriously disputed
   that the Foundation’s exhibit satisfied the requirements for display or that
   the Board’s removal of the exhibit violated the First Amendment restrictions
   concerning speech communicated in a limited public forum. But in 2020, the
   Board amended the Capitol Exhibit Rule, significantly increasing its discre-
   tion to accept or reject exhibits, and declaring that any accepted exhibit con-
   stitutes “government speech.” Finally, last year, the Board repealed the
   Rule altogether. Even so, the district court entered judgment for the Foun-
   dation, declaring the Defendants’ exclusion of the Foundation’s exhibit to be
   unlawful, and ordering them to display the exhibit in the Texas Capitol.
          The questions presented are whether the Preservation Board closed
   what previously was a limited public forum, and if so, whether that closure
   moots the Foundation’s claim that it is being excluded from participation in
   that forum. Notwithstanding the Defendants’ wrongful prior exclusion of
   the Foundation’s exhibit, we answer both questions in the affirmative. Be-
   cause the Foundation’s injury is premised on exclusion from expressing its
   message in a public forum, and because the public forum no longer exists, the
   permanent injunctive relief ordered by the district court cannot remain.
          We therefore must VACATE the injunction entered by the district
   court. However, the order and declaratory judgment—declaring that the De-
   fendants violate the First Amendment by excluding the Foundation’s exhibit
   from a limited public forum—shall remain. And we also note that our holding
   does not preclude the Foundation from showing that it is entitled to attorney
   fees as the prevailing party under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, given that the Board re-
   pealed the Capitol Exhibit Rule in apparent response to the Foundation’s
   lawsuit.

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                                                I
           As introduced above, this case concerns the State Preservation Board
   and the Capitol Exhibit Rule. The Board is composed of the Governor, who
   serves as Chairman, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the Texas House of
   Representatives, a Senator appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, a Member
   appointed by the Speaker, and a “representative of the general public” ap-
   pointed by the Governor. Tex. Gov’t Code §§ 443.003–.004. In addition,
   the Board may appoint an executive director to direct the Board’s day-to-day
   operations. Id. § 443.0051.
           The Capitol Exhibit Rule was mostly unchanged from its inception in
   1987 until it was amended in 2020. At the time this lawsuit was filed, an ap-
   plication to display an exhibit in the Capitol was required to satisfy two pri-
   mary conditions. 1 First, the exhibit had to be “for a public purpose.” 13 Tex.
   Admin. Code § 111.13(c)(2) (2012). A “public purpose” meant “[t]he pro-
   motion of the public health, education, safety, morals, general welfare, secu-
   rity, and prosperity of all of the inhabitants or residents within the state.” Id.
   § 111.13(a)(3). And second, the exhibit had to be recommended by “a state
   official sponsor,” id. § 111.13(c)(1), which included the Governor, Lieutenant
   Governor, or a Texas Senator or Member of the Texas House of Represent-
   atives. Id. § 111.13(a)(4). Acceptance by the Board was mandatory if the pro-
   posed exhibit met these requirements. Id. § 111.13(c)(1) (providing that qual-
   ifying exhibits “shall be approved and scheduled by the office of the State
   Preservation Board”).

           1
              The regulation also included several other administrative requirements, like that
   a “detailed description” of the exhibit accompany the submission. 13 Tex. Admin. Code
   § 111.13(c)(3)(A) (2012). And the regulation also included uncontroversial restrictions,
   like that the exhibit not “promote a commercial enterprise.” Id. § 111.13(c)(9)(B). These
   administrative requirements and restrictions are not at issue here.

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           Such was the state of the law when the events at issue began. In De-
   cember of 2014, the Foundation learned that a Christian nativity scene had
   been accepted for display in the Capitol. Finding the exhibit to be contrary
   to its stated mission concerning the separation of church and state, the Foun-
   dation applied to display what it calls a “Bill of Rights” nativity scene. The
   display consists of four cutout figures—the Statue of Liberty, George Wash-
   ington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin—standing over a manger
   containing the Bill of Rights. The exhibit would also display a banner in front
   of the figures, bearing the following text: “Happy Winter Solstice / At this
   Season of the Winter Solstice, we honor reason and the Bill of Rights
   (adopted December 15, 1791) / Keep State & Church Separate / On Behalf
   of Texas Members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.” 2 The pro-
   posal was accompanied by the recommendation of a state representative and
   its stated purpose was to “educate the public and celebrate the 224th anni-
   versary and the ratification of the Bill of Rights . . . and to educate the public
   about the religious and nonreligious diversity within the State.”
           The requirements of the Capitol Exhibit Rule apparently satisfied, the
   Preservation Board approved the exhibit for display from December 18, 2015,
   to December 23. However, on December 22, the Governor directed the Ex-
   ecutive Director to remove the display. 3 According to the Governor, the dis-
   play “deliberately mock[ed] Christians and Christianity,” did “nothing to
   promote morals and the general welfare,” and lacked any legitimate

           2
            As originally proposed, the banner read: “At this Season of the Winter Solstice,
   LET REASON PREVAIL. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
   There is only the natural world. Religion is but myth & superstition that hardens hearts &
   enslaves minds.” The Foundation amended its first proposal to the language shown above.
           3
            Mr. Sneed was the executive director at the time at issue. He later left the Preser-
   vation Board to serve in the United States Department of Energy, and was succeeded by
   Rod Welsh, who was then automatically substituted as a defendant. Fed. R. Civ. P. 25(d).

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   educational purpose. As such, he contended, the exhibit failed to satisfy the
   public-purpose requirement. 13 Tex. Admin. Code § 111.13(c)(2) (2012).
   The Executive Director removed the display the same day. 4
           The Foundation proceeded to sue the Governor and Executive Direc-
   tor in February of 2016. The operative complaint alleges five claims: (1) a
   free-speech claim under the First Amendment; (2) an equal-protection claim
   under the Fourteenth Amendment; (3) a claim under the Establishment
   Clause of the First Amendment; (4) a due-process claim under the Four-
   teenth Amendment; and (5) a claim based on the First Amendment, arguing
   that the Capitol Exhibit Rule violates the unbridled-discretion doctrine. Only
   the free-speech claim is at issue here. 5
           The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment on that claim.
   The State defended against the Foundation’s free-speech claim with two ar-
   guments: (1) that the exhibits accepted for display in the Capitol are govern-
   ment speech and thus not subject to the First Amendment; and (2) that the
   Capitol was a limited public forum, and that the Board’s public-purpose re-
   quirement was a viewpoint-neutral restriction on speech. The district court
   entered judgment for the Foundation, rejecting the argument that the chosen
   exhibits are government speech, finding that, under the Capitol Exhibit Rule,
   the Capitol was a limited public forum, and concluding that the public-pur-
   pose requirement was not viewpoint neutral. As relief, the district court de-
   clared the Defendants’ removal of the Foundation’s exhibit to be unlawful,

           4
           The Foundation also applied in July of 2016 to display the same exhibit, and the
   Board denied the application for substantially the same reasons as before.
           5
            The equal-protection, Establishment-Clause, and due-process claims have since
   been dismissed either by agreement or in prior proceedings. In addition, the district court
   granted summary judgment to the Defendants on the Foundation’s unbridled-discretion
   claim, and the Foundation did not appeal that order.

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   but did not enter injunctive relief ordering the Defendants to accept future
   applications by the Foundation to display the same exhibit. Both parties ap-
   pealed. The State did not challenge the merits of the finding that its exclusion
   of the Foundation’s exhibit violated the First Amendment, instead arguing
   that the district court lacked jurisdiction to enter the judgment. The Foun-
   dation contended that the district court should have ordered injunctive relief.
          We vacated the judgment of the district court, with two relevant hold-
   ings. Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Abbott, 955 F.3d 417 (5th Cir. 2020).
   First, we explained that the State was immune from the declaratory judgment
   because it was purely retrospective. Id. at 424–26. Second, we instructed the
   district court to consider the Foundation’s request for injunctive relief and
   to enter “appropriate” prospective relief. Id. at 426. What appeared to be a
   straightforward remand, however, was complicated by subsequent amend-
   ments to the Capitol Exhibit Rule. One month after we decided the parties’
   appeal, the Preservation Board proposed several amendments to the relevant
   regulations. 45 Tex. Reg. 3406 (May 22, 2020). After notice and comment,
   the Board adopted the amendments with slight modifications. 45 Tex. Reg.
   4968 (July 17, 2020).
          Several aspects of the amendments relate to the issues presented here.
   First, the Board described all accepted displays as government speech, and
   required that a statement indicating the State’s approval accompany the dis-
   play: “Any exhibit approved and scheduled pursuant to this section by the
   office of the State Preservation Board is hereby adopted as government
   speech, and shall be accompanied by a statement identifying the State Official
   Sponsor and indicating the approval of the office of the State Preservation
   Board.” 13 Tex. Admin. Code § 111.13(b) (2021). Second, the Board made
   acceptance of a display permissive, rather than mandatory: “Exhibits may be
   approved and scheduled by the office of the State Preservation Board.” Id.
   § 111.13(d)(1). Third, the Board increased its authority to review exhibits,

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   asserting “the right to require the exhibitor to make any changes to the ex-
   hibit,” id. § 111.13(d)(5), whereas previously that right was limited to “aes-
   thetic changes.” Id. § 111.13(c)(5) (2012). Fourth, the Board removed the
   term “morals” from the list of criteria that define whether an exhibit serves
   a public purpose. Id. § 111.13(a)(3) (2021).
          Before the district court, the State argued that the amendments to the
   Capitol Exhibit Rule changed the nature of the display program, closing what
   was previously a limited public forum and endorsing all subsequent exhibits
   as government speech. As such, the State contended, the Foundation’s free-
   speech claim was moot because the underlying injury—exclusion from par-
   ticipation in a public forum—no longer existed. The district court rejected
   the State’s argument, concluding that, even under the amended Capitol Ex-
   hibit Rule, the Capitol was a limited public forum, that, as before, the criteria
   for accepting an exhibit were not viewpoint neutral, and that the free-speech
   claim was therefore not moot. The district court entered judgment for the
   Foundation and ordered two forms of relief. First, the district court enjoined
   the Defendants “from excluding the Foundation’s Exhibit from display in
   the designated exhibit area of the Texas Capitol Building and the Capitol Ex-
   tension.” Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Abbott, 537 F. Supp. 3d 910,
   922 (W.D. Tex. 2021). And second, the district court declared that the De-
   fendants “violate the Foundation’s First Amendment rights and engage in
   viewpoint discrimination as a matter of law when they exclude the Founda-
   tion’s Exhibit based on the perceived offensiveness of its message.” Id.
          The State appealed. In briefing and at oral argument, the State more
   or less presented the same arguments it made to the district court. That is,
   it argued that the amendments to the Capitol Exhibit Rule closed the public
   forum, and that the Foundation’s free-speech claim was moot. But following
   the close of briefing, the Preservation Board amended the Rule again. Spe-
   cifically, the Board proposed to repeal the regulation altogether. 46 Tex. Reg.

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   9146 (Dec. 31, 2021). That proposal was finalized in April of 2022. 47 Tex.
   Reg. 1993 (April 15, 2022). The regulation that once supported the Capitol
   Exhibit Rule, 13 Texas Administrative Code § 111.13, no longer exists.
          Meanwhile, and despite the presence of the district court’s injunction,
   the Foundation has not applied to display its Bill of Rights nativity exhibit in
   the Capitol. Indeed, the Foundation has not applied at all since its submis-
   sions in 2015 and 2016. Nonetheless, the Foundation continues to seek affir-
   mance, including in its post-argument submissions. It therefore falls to us to
   assess whether the district court was correct to enter judgment for the Foun-
   dation and order the Defendants to display the former’s exhibit.
                                          II
          The dispositive issue is whether the case is moot in light of the amend-
   ment and repeal of the Capitol Exhibit Rule. As recognized before, we review
   “questions of federal jurisdiction de novo,” and that class of issues “includes
   questions of sovereign immunity . . . and mootness.” Freedom from Religion
   Foundation, 955 F.3d at 423 (citations and quotation marks omitted).
                                          A
          Article III restricts our jurisdiction to cases and controversies. We are
   therefore permitted “to adjudicate only live disputes.” Hinkley v. Envoy Air,
   Inc., 968 F.3d 544, 548 (5th Cir. 2020). And a dispute is no longer live when
   “the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.” Already, LLC
   v. Nike, Inc., 568 U.S. 85, 91 (2013) (citation and quotation marks omitted).
   In that event, the case has become moot. In addition, a live controversy must
   maintain through each stage of the litigation. See Lewis v. Continental Bank
   Corp., 494 U.S. 472, 477 (1990) (explaining that jurisdiction must “subsist[]
   through all stages of federal judicial proceedings”). As we have previously
   said, “‘[t]here must be a case or controversy through all stages of a case’—
   not just when a suit comes into existence but throughout its existence.” Yarls

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   v. Bunton, 905 F.3d 905, 909 (5th Cir. 2018) (quoting KP v. LeBlanc, 729 F.3d
   427, 438 (5th Cir. 2013)). For these reasons, “any set of circumstances that
   eliminates actual controversy after the commencement of a lawsuit renders
   that action moot.” DeOtte v. Nevada, 20 F.4th 1055, 1064 (5th Cir. 2021)
   (quoting Center for Individual Freedom v. Carmouche, 449 F.3d 655, 651 (5th
   Cir. 2006)).
          The mootness issue often arises where, as here, a statute or regulation
   is amended or repealed after plaintiffs bring a lawsuit challenging the legality
   of that statute or regulation. In that case, mootness is the default. See Hou-
   ston Chronicle Publishing Co. v. League City, 488 F.3d 613, 619 (5th Cir. 2007)
   (“It goes without saying that disputes concerning repealed legislation are
   generally moot.”); Fantasy Ranch Inc. v. City of Arlington, 459 F.3d 546, 564
   (5th Cir. 2006) (“[S]tatutory changes that discontinue a challenged practice
   are ‘usually enough to render a case moot, even if the legislature possesses
   the power to reenact the statute after the lawsuit is dismissed.’”) (quoting
   Valero Terrestrial Corp. v. Paige, 211 F.3d 112, 116 (4th Cir. 2000)); McCorvey
   v. Hill, 385 F.3d 846, 849 (5th Cir. 2004) (“Suits regarding the constitution-
   ality of statutes become moot once the statute is repealed.”); accord, e.g.,
   Board of Trustees of Glazing Health & Welfare v. Chambers, 941 F.3d 1195, 1199
   (9th Cir. 2019) (“[I]n determining whether a case is moot, we should pre-
   sume that the repeal, amendment, or expiration of legislation will render an
   action challenging the legislation moot.”); Ozinga v. Price, 855 F.3d 730, 734
   (7th Cir. 2017) (“When a plaintiff’s complaint is focused on a particular stat-
   ute, regulation, or rule and seeks only prospective relief, the case becomes
   moot when the government repeals, revises, or replaces the challenged law
   and thereby removes the complained-of defect.”). Indeed, the Supreme
   Court recently applied this principle in New York State Rifle & Pistol Associa-
   tion v. City of New York, dismissing the plaintiffs’ case as moot after the City
   of New York amended the challenged rule. 140 S. Ct. 1525, 1526 (2020).

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          According to these binding principles, we must conclude that this case
   is moot because the Foundation’s asserted injury was tied to the existence of
   the Capitol Exhibit Rule. That is, the Foundation argues that it was wrong-
   fully excluded from displaying its exhibit in a limited public forum. And its
   injury necessarily parallels its requested relief. That is, the Foundation re-
   quests an injunction ordering the Defendants to display its exhibit in the fo-
   rum. But the Board has closed the forum, ending the formal process whereby
   members of the public were entitled to apply to the Preservation Board for
   permission to display their exhibit in the Capitol.
          What is more, the Foundation conceded that the State could close the
   public forum by doing exactly what it has done here. That is, it conceded that
   “[t]o close the forum the State could simply . . . stop accepting applications
   for exhibits. . . . This would immediately change the nature of the Capitol ex-
   hibits area.” And so although the Foundation complains that its application
   was denied based on its exhibit’s viewpoint, the application process no longer
   exists. We are therefore forced to conclude that there is no longer a live con-
   troversy between the parties, given that the basis of the controversy, the Cap-
   itol Exhibit Rule, was repealed.
          Consider the case through the lens of the Foundation’s free-speech
   claim. It is not seriously disputed that the State treated the Foundation une-
   qually by refusing to display the exhibit at issue. But “the First Amendment
   does not tell us which way to cure . . . unequal treatment.” Barr v. American
   Ass’n of Political Consultants, Inc., 140 S. Ct. 2335, 2355 (2020) (quoting Sor-
   rell v. IMS Health Inc., 564 U.S. 552, 567 (2011)). In general, a governmental
   entity has two options to remedy unequal treatment; it can either “extend[]
   the benefits or burdens to the exempted class” or “nullify[] the benefits or
   burdens for all.” Id. at 2354 (citing Heckler v. Mathews, 465 U.S. 728, 740
   (1984)). Instead of levelling up, and allowing the Foundation to participate
   in the limited public forum, the State elected to level down and close the

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   forum altogether. In other words, the Preservation Board simply “discon-
   tinue[d]” the “challenged practice.” Fantasy Ranch, 459 F.3d at 564 (quot-
   ing Valero, 211 F.3d at 116). As such, a live controversy no longer exists, and
   the case is thus moot. Hinkley, 968 F.3d at 548.
                                           B
          However, it is an exception to mootness that “a defendant’s voluntary
   cessation of a challenged practice does not deprive a federal court of its power
   to determine the legality of the practice.” Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw
   Environmental Services, Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 189 (2000) (quoting City of Mes-
   quite v. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc., 455 U.S. 283, 289 (1982)). And in fact, the
   Foundation’s central defense against mootness is to assert the voluntary-ces-
   sation exception. We must therefore consider whether the exception pre-
   vents this case from being moot.
          In general, a defendant’s voluntary conduct moots a case only if “it is
   absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be
   expected to recur.” Sossamon v. Texas, 560 F.3d 316, 325 (5th Cir. 2009),
   affirmed, 563 U.S. 277 (2011). But governmental entities bear a “‘lighter bur-
   den’ . . . in proving that the challenged conduct will not recur once the suit is
   dismissed as moot.” Stauffer v. Gearhart, 741 F.3d 574, 582 (5th Cir. 2014)
   (quoting Sossamon, 560 F.3d at 325). That is so because we presume that
   state actors, as public representatives, act in good faith. See, e.g., Amawi v.
   Paxton, 956 F.3d 816, 821 (5th Cir. 2020) (citing Fantasy Ranch, 459 F.3d at
   564; Sossamon, 560 F.3d at 325). For this reason, and “[w]ithout evidence to
   the contrary, we assume that formally announced changes to official govern-
   mental policy are not mere litigation posturing.” Sossamon, 560 F.3d at 325.
   Among other things, the government’s ability to reimplement the statute or
   regulation at issue is insufficient to prove the voluntary-cessation exception.
   See, e.g., Fantasy Ranch, 459 F.3d at 564 (explaining that a case is moot “even

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   if the legislature possesses the power to reenact the statute after the lawsuit
   is dismissed”); accord National Black Police Ass’n v. District of Columbia, 108
   F.3d 346, 349 (D.C. Cir. 1997) (“[T]he mere power to reenact a challenged
   law is not a sufficient basis on which a court can conclude that a reasonable
   expectation of recurrence exists.”).
          We conclude that the voluntary-cessation exception to mootness does
   not apply here because nothing in the record suggests that the Board will re-
   implement the Capitol Exhibit Rule. More specifically, nothing in the record
   suggests that the Board will continue to accept exhibit applications from the
   public—but will reject an application from the Foundation based on the ex-
   hibit’s viewpoint. The parties quarrel over who bears the burden of proof in
   the context of a governmental defendant. But it makes no difference in this
   instance whether the State must satisfy a “lighter burden,” Sossamon, 560
   F.3d at 325, or if the Foundation must show that the regulation will be put
   back in place. Either way, the evidence shows that the regulation has been
   formally repealed, with no indication that the Preservation Board intends to
   reconsider that decision.
          The Foundation counters that the Preservation Board may still display
   exhibits in the Capitol, just without any formal display program. For its part,
   the State does not dispute this assertion. And in fact, the Preservation Board
   clarified that is has authority to display exhibits of its own accord. See 46 Tex.
   Reg. at 9146 (“[T]he agency does not need the [Capitol Exhibit] rule in order
   to serve its intended purpose of providing for the display of government
   speech on the Capitol grounds that educates, informs, and unites.”). Based
   on this evidence, the Foundation argues that the State’s wrongful conduct is
   reasonably likely to recur, and thus that the case is not moot.
          This argument fails because the Foundation’s evidence does not sup-
   port its conclusion. True, it seems clear that the Preservation Board intends

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   to display exhibits in the Capitol at some point in the future. But there is no
   indication that any new display program will be wrongful in the same way that
   the prior program was wrongful. Recall that the Foundation’s central com-
   plaint as to the previous program is that the Preservation Board accepted ap-
   plications from members of the public—but rejected its application based on
   the viewpoint of its exhibit. Now, the program for soliciting exhibits from the
   public has been eliminated. And so even if the Preservation Board displays
   exhibits in the Capitol of its own accord, its doing so would not reimplement
   the practice to which the Foundation objects.
           The Foundation also points to the Supreme Court’s recent decision
   in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 142 S. Ct. 1583 (2022), arguing that governmen-
   tal defendants can violate the First Amendment even without written guide-
   lines. That is true, so far as it goes. If the Board adopted an unwritten policy
   of accepting exhibits from members of the public and, in determining which
   exhibits to accept, discriminated on the basis of an exhibit’s viewpoint, such
   a policy would almost certainly violate the First Amendment. Likewise, the
   Foundation is in no way precluded from filing a new lawsuit challenging the
   constitutionality of such a policy, should one be established. But the problem
   for the Foundation is that it can only speculate as to what the Preservation
   Board’s new policy will be as it relates to displaying exhibits in the Capitol.
   And speculation is insufficient to satisfy the voluntary-cessation exception.
   See Amawi, 956 F.3d at 821 (explaining that the case was moot because it was
   “remote, and indeed unrealistically speculative, that the[] defendants will
   ever again expose the plaintiffs to the claimed injury that prompted the law-
   suit”); Sossamon, 560 F.3d at 325 (recognizing that the plaintiff’s allegations
   were “too speculative to avoid mooting the case”). 6

           6
            The Foundation argues that the amendment and subsequent repeal of the Capitol
   Exhibit Rule are merely “litigation posturing,” and show that the Preservation Board will

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           Shurtleff thus does not support the Foundation’s position. If any-
   thing, it cuts in the opposite direction because that case expressly recognizes
   that a governmental entity can convert a limited public forum into a forum
   for government speech. In Shurtleff, the City of Boston allowed members of
   the public to raise a flag on the flagpoles outside the Boston City Hall. The
   City had no written policy on this subject, but generally told the public that it
   sought to “accommodate all applicants.” 142 S. Ct. at 1592; see id. at 1593
   (describing the City’s “come-one-come-all attitude”). However, it denied a
   request to fly a Christian flag.
           The Supreme Court rejected the City’s argument that the flag-flying
   policy was government speech, but made clear that “nothing prevents Bos-
   ton from changing its policies going forward.” Shurtleff, 142 S. Ct. at 1593.
   The Court also suggested that the City might clarify, as other cities did, that
   “flagpoles are not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the
   public” and that flags approved for flying are selected “as an expression of
   the City’s official sentiments.” Id. The upshot is that a governmental entity
   is certainly entitled to close a limited public forum and instead speak only on
   its own behalf. See also Perry Education Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators Ass’n,
   460 U.S. 37, 46 (1983) (reiterating that “a state is not required to indefinitely
   retain the open character of [a] facility”). Indeed, the Foundation “does not
   disagree that the State has the power to . . . close the limited public forum if
   it so chooses.” That is precisely what the Preservation Board has done here.

   revert to its wrongful conduct if this case is dismissed as moot. But the evidence before us
   cannot bear that claim. After the Board amended the regulation, it invited the Foundation
   to reapply to display its exhibit. As noted above, the Foundation failed to do so. And so we
   have no way of knowing whether the State would have rejected that subsequent application.
   Likewise, nothing in the record suggests that the Board has accepted exhibits from mem-
   bers of the public since the regulation was repealed, let alone that the Foundation applied
   to display its exhibit, and was denied. There is thus no evidence that the Board is using the
   regulation changes to continue the same wrongful conduct.

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   It no longer wished for the Capitol to be used as a limited public forum and
   so repealed the regulation providing for that forum. The possibility that the
   Board might use the Capitol to speak on its own behalf does not prevent this
   case from being moot. 7
                                                 C
           Finally, the State stresses that the Foundation’s requests for attorney
   fees do not restore what was previously a live controversy. That is correct.
   E.g., Lewis, 494 U.S. at 480 (“[An] interest in attorney’s fees is, of course,
   insufficient to create an Article III case or controversy where none exists on
   the merits of the underlying claim.”) (citation omitted). But we reiterate that
   our holding does not prevent the district court from awarding attorney fees.
   “[A] determination of mootness neither precludes nor is precluded by an
   award of attorneys’ fees. The attorneys’ fees question turns instead on a
   wholly independent consideration: whether plaintiff is a prevailing party.”
   Staley v. Harris County, 485 F.3d 305, 314 (5th Cir. 2007) (quoting Doe v.

           7
             The Foundation also cites Speech First, Inc. v. Fenves, 979 F.3d 319 (5th Cir. 2020),
   for the proposition that the State must issue a “controlling statement of future intention”
   to prove that it will no longer display exhibits submitted by members of the public. But the
   facts in Fenves are clearly distinguishable from the ones at issue here. In Fenves, the policies
   at issue were speech codes promulgated by the University of Texas. After legal challenges
   to the codes, the University proposed changes to the codes, for approval by the Board of
   Regents. We explained that the case was not moot, inter alia, because the president’s rep-
   resentation that the University did not intend to reimplement the challenged policies, with-
   out more, was insufficient to moot the case. Id. at 328–29. Here, by contrast, the Preser-
   vation Board has finalized the repeal of the Capitol Exhibit Rule. And unlike in Fenves, the
   Board’s action was subject to formal notice and comment. In these circumstances, no state-
   ment of future intention is necessary. And what is more, Fenves arose in the distinct context
   of “voluntary cessation by a public university.” 979 F.3d at 328; see id. (“This is not the
   first appeal in which a public university has had a sudden change of heart, during litigation,
   about the overbreadth and vagueness of its speech code, and then advocated mootness un-
   der a relaxed standard.”). That fact-specific context does not apply here.

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   Marshall, 622 F.2d 118, 120 (5th Cir. 1980)). We express no opinion on the
   issue of which side is the prevailing party, as that question is not before us.
                                            III
          Having determined that the case is moot, we must now consider what
   relief should issue. To recap, the district court rendered judgment for the
   Foundation on the latter’s free-speech claim. In so doing, the court: (1) de-
   clared that the Defendants violate the First Amendment when they exclude
   the Foundation’s exhibit based on its viewpoint; and (2) enjoined the De-
   fendants from excluding the exhibit from display in the Capitol.
          Where a case becomes moot while on appeal, the historical rule “was
   to vacate the judgment” below. Staley, 485 F.3d at 310 (citing United States
   v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36, 39 (1950)). But the Supreme Court tem-
   pered that rule in U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership, 513
   U.S. 18 (1994). There, the Court explained that the analysis generally re-
   quires “the party seeking relief from the status quo” of the judgment to
   demonstrate “equitable entitlement to the extraordinary remedy of vaca-
   tur.” That inquiry, the Court explained, is consistent with the equitable tra-
   dition to “dispose[] of moot cases in the manner most consonant to justice in
   view of the nature and character of the conditions which have caused the case
   to become moot.” Id. at 26 (quoting Izumi v. U.S. Phillips Corp., 510 U.S. 27,
   40 (1993) (Stephens, J., dissenting)).
          The Court identified two equitable considerations as particularly rel-
   evant to the vacatur analysis. First, a court must consider “whether the party
   seeking relief from the judgment below caused the mootness by voluntary ac-
   tion.” Bancorp, 513 U.S. at 24. And second, “[a]s always when federal courts
   contemplate equitable relief, [the] holding must also take account of the pub-
   lic interest.” Id. at 26. In Bancorp and in subsequent cases, the Court has
   identified at least two equitable factors that bear on the public interest: (1) the

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   value that judicial precedents give “to the legal community as a whole,” id.
   (citation and quotation marks omitted); and (2) “federalism concern[s]” re-
   lating to the “premature adjudication” of a constitutional challenge to a state
   law. Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 75, 79 (1997).
          We have never understood those factors to be exhaustive. Rather, our
   precedents demonstrate that vacatur “depends on the equities of the case,”
   Staley, 485 F.3d at 312 (quoting Russman v. Board of Education, 260 F.3d 114,
   121 (2d Cir. 2001)), and that there is no “hard and fast rule . . . in fashioning
   a remedy for mootness.” Id. Among other things, we have also considered
   if the action mooting the dispute is “temporary,” id., as well as whether the
   party seeking vacatur is “subject to a money judgment or any injunctive relief
   as a result of the district court’s judgment,” Hall v. Louisiana, 884 F.3d 546,
   553 (5th Cir. 2018).
          Here, equitable considerations weigh both in support of vacatur, and
   against. On the one hand, it appears that the Defendants were at least some-
   what responsible for the action that mooted this case—the repeal of the Cap-
   itol Exhibit Rule. The State denies this conclusion, noting that the Preserva-
   tion Board is the entity that repealed the regulation, and arguing that the Gov-
   ernor cannot direct the Board’s actions because he constitutes only one of six
   board members. And it also observes that the executive director has no vote
   on the Board at all.
          The State may be correct about the formal limitations of the Gover-
   nor’s power, but equity looks beyond superficial distinctions such as these.
   See, e.g., Young v. Higbee, 324 U.S. 204, 209 (1945) (“Equity looks to the sub-
   stance and not merely to the form.”). The Governor plainly wields signifi-
   cant influence over the Preservation Board’s activities, as evidenced by the
   executive director’s prompt response to the Governor’s request to remove
   the Foundation’s exhibit. No stretch of the imagination is required to

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                                     No. 21-50469

   suppose that the Governor was, at least in part, a moving force behind the
   repeal of the Capitol Exhibit Rule—an action that directly accorded with his
   previously expressed policy preferences.
          Also, like all judicial precedents, the district court’s judgment is valu-
   able “to the legal community as a whole.” Bancorp, 513 U.S. at 26. And this
   precedent is particularly valuable because it might bear on future state poli-
   cies respecting a similar subject, and any related disputes. See Staley, 485
   F.3d at 313–14 (“Indeed, the preservation of the district court judgment
   serves the judicial and community interests by discouraging relitigation of the
   identical issues by the same parties under the same circumstances.”).
          On the other hand, the judgment subjects the Defendants to perma-
   nent injunctive relief, despite the Preservation Board’s unconditional repeal
   of the Capitol Exhibit Rule. Compare Hall, 884 F.3d at 553 (equity did not
   require vacatur where the losing party was not subject to injunctive relief);
   Staley, 485 F.3d at 312 (equity allowed injunction to remain in place because
   the action mooting the case was only temporary). Ordinarily, a permanent
   injunction relating to a challenged law or regulation cannot continue after the
   law or regulation is removed. That is so because “parties have no power to
   require of the court continuing enforcement of rights [a] statute no longer
   gives.” System Federation No. 91 v. Wright, 364 U.S. 642, 652 (1961); see also
   Pennsylvania v. Wheeling & Belmont Bridge Co., 59 U.S. (18 How.) 421, 432
   (1855) (explaining that after an ordinance “has been modified by the compe-
   tent authority, . . . it is quite plain the decree of the court cannot be en-
   forced”). These principles show that the public interest is impeded, rather
   than furthered, by ordering state officials not to exclude the Foundation from
   participation in a program that no longer exists. Indeed, we have previously
   said that an injunction is “meaningless” if “there remains no live contro-
   versy between the parties.” Fontenot v. McCraw, 777 F.3d 741, 747 (5th Cir.
   2015). And it goes without saying that it would pose serious federalism

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                                     No. 21-50469

   concerns for a federal court to order state officials to continue enforcing a
   policy that the state agency has repealed. See Arizonans for Official English,
   520 U.S. at 75.
          Given the competing equitable considerations, we vacate only part of
   the district court’s judgment. In light of the particular “equities of the case,”
   Staley, 485 F.3d at 312, the permanent injunction disserves the public interest
   and must be vacated. But the district court’s order and declaratory judgment
   further the public interest insofar as they might provide important guidance
   to future disputes. And these aspects of the judgment do not pose the same
   sort of federalism concern as does the permanent injunction. We therefore
   decline to vacate the order and declaratory judgment.
                                          IV
          We are compelled to conclude that the State Preservation Board’s re-
   peal of the Capitol Exhibit Rule renders this case moot. Given that the case
   became moot while on appeal, we have examined the equities to determine
   whether and to what extent the judgment below should be vacated. The per-
   manent injunction is VACATED. We otherwise decline to vacate the order
   and judgment. This case is REMANDED to the district court for consider-
   ation of Freedom from Religion Foundation’s motions for attorney fees, and
   other proceedings consistent with this opinion, to the extent necessary.

                                          19