The 8-year legal saga over censorship by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of a Bill of Rights display has finally ended with receipt of attorneys’ fees by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Although FFRF won the lawsuit with a judgment by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last year, disputes and delaying tactics by the governor held up the required attorney fees and costs totaling $358,073.67, which were received this week. Of that, $184,727.11 reimburses FFRF for staff attorney time.
“We’re pleased this federal lawsuit can finally be put to rest,” comments Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “But had Abbott only done the right thing from the start, or at least accepted the decision of the federal court back in 2017, Texas taxpayers would have been spared most of these attorneys’ fees.”
The lawsuit began in February 2016, after Abbott ordered removal of FFRF’s duly-approved and permitted Bill of Rights “nativity” display from the Texas state Capitol. Abbott ordered the display removed only three days after it was put up on Dec. 18, 2015, lambasting it as indecent, mocking and “contributing to public immorality.”
The exhibit, designed by artist Jake Fortin, commemorates the “birth” of the Bill of Rights (adopted on Dec. 15, 1791), depicting Founding Fathers and the Statue of Liberty gazing adoringly at a manger containing the historic document. A sign by the display also celebrated the Winter Solstice. FFRF placed the display to counter a Christian nativity scene placed in the Capitol in 2014 and 2015.
Largely due to Abbott’s refusal to accept the ruling of the court in FFRF’s favor, the case pingponged before the federal courts and the appeals court, which ruled on it twice. The state later closed the public forum altogether.
On January 27, 2023 the 5th Circuit unanimously ruled in FFRF’s favor. FFRF is pleased that the court warned the state that closing its forum in the Texas Capitol does not mean the state has free rein to discriminate when displaying exhibits in the future.
FFRF was represented in the case by FFRF Counsel Sam Grover and FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott, with attorney Rich Bolton of Boardman and Clark LLP serving as litigation counsel. The District Court case number is 1:16-cv-00233 and the Appeals Court number is 21-50469.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including more than 1720 members and a chapter in Texas. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
