Court Opinion

ID: 9435690
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 00:15:20.387785+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:06.565581
License: Public Domain

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the majority opinion’s thoughtful resolution of the constitutional issues surrounding the 2005 Resolutions and its conclusions on the procedural issues in this case but write to emphasize one point. Given that we lack jurisdiction to consider the counties’ appeal from the district court’s denial of their motion for relief from judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), in which they first brought the 2007 Resolutions to the court’s attention, I would not reach the issue of whether the 2007 Resolutions evince a religious or secular purpose for the Foundations Displays. In light of the Supreme Court’s cautioning that the counties’ past actions need not “forever taint any effort on their part to deal with the *452subject matter,” McCreary County v. ACLU, 545 U.S. 844, 873-74, 125 S.Ct. 2722, 162 L.Ed.2d 729 (2005), I would leave this issue to the district court in the first instance. See Jordon v. Gilligan, 500 F.2d 701, 707 (6th Cir.1974) (noting that appellate court dicta has persuasive precedential effect only).
DISSENT