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'Christmas Lawyer' files for Supreme Court review in battle with HOA over holiday light show

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'Christmas Lawyer' files for Supreme Court review in battle with HOA over holiday light show

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.

Jeremy Morris’ five-day Christmas light show to raise money for charity began in 2014. When he moved to a new neighborhood the following year, his homeowners association tried to stop him from repeating the event. (Courtesy Jeremy Morris)

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‘CHRISTMAS LAWYER’ WHO WENT TO WAR WITH HIS HOA IS NOW FACING ANOTHER FIGHT — THE IDAHO STATE BAR

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.

Origins of the Christmas light fight

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 letter sent to Morris in January 2015.

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Crucially, the letter also pondered whether “non-Christians” would be offended by the display. Morris wrote back, arguing that there was nothing applicable to his event in the CC&Rs and that the board was engaging in religious discrimination. His family closed on the house and moved in.

The HOA board sent this letter to Jeremy Morris in January 2015, outlining rules they believed his Christmas display would violate and worrying that residents who were “non-Christians” might object to the program. (Fox News Digital)

HOA HORROR STORIES: GEORGIA HOMEOWNERS SHARE NIGHTMARISH LEGAL BRAWLS

When Morris started hanging hundreds of thousands of individual bulbs on his house à la Clark Griswold, the HOA’s attorney sent him a letter threatening legal action if he hosted the event without approval from the board.

Morris didn’t back down. Musicians, a children’s choir, a live nativity scene and even a camel greeted spectators. Morris rented shuttle buses to carry visitors to the event, and volunteers directed cars through the streets around the house, according to court documents.

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Tensions grew leading up to the Morris family’s 2016 show. Neighbors were accused of harassing spectators, and Morris said his family received threats, including an in-person confrontation partially caught on camera in which a neighbor offered to “take care of him.”

Morris previously told Fox News Digital he didn’t want to take legal action and offered to waive his rights to proceed with a lawsuit if the HOA agreed to leave his family alone. The HOA refused, he said, and the statute of limitations was almost up on the original letter.

Jury unanimously sided with Morris in discrimination lawsuit, but judge flipped the verdict

Morris sued in January 2017, alleging religious discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act. A jury unanimously sided with him and ordered the HOA to pay $75,000. 

But Judge B. Lynn Winmill took the unusual step of flipping the verdict and ordering Morris to pay the HOA more than $111,000 in legal fees, concluding the case wasn’t about religious discrimination, but rather the Morris family’s violation of neighborhood rules.

Morris, who has since moved out of Idaho, appealed. His case went before the 9th Circuit in June 2020 and waited four years for a ruling.

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In 2018, a jury unanimously agreed that the HOA discriminated against the Morris family when it tried to stop their Christmas show. But the following spring, the federal judge who oversaw the trial made the rare move of flipping the verdict. (Courtesy Jeremy Morris)

‘STOP THE NONSENSE’: LAWMAKERS IN ONE STATE MOVE TO GIVE HOMEOWNERS MORE RIGHTS IN HOA DISPUTES

A three-judge panel affirmed Winmill’s overturning of the jury verdict, concluding that a reasonable jury should not have found the HOA letter from 2015 indicated a preference that a “non-religious individual” buy the Morrises’ home.

But the panel also determined there was enough evidence supporting the jury’s conclusion that the HOA board’s “conduct was motivated at least in part by the Morrises’ religious expression,” according to the more than 100-page ruling.

The 9th Circuit ruling allowed for a new trial, but Morris appealed to the Supreme Court instead. He has “several attorneys potentially lined up” to represent him, and said he’s hopeful his case will appeal to the justices, noting that it encompasses several constitutional rights.

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“The right to celebrate Christmas in accordance with our family’s faith traditions, to use our property to express that Christian faith tradition, and the right to have a unanimous jury verdict protected after 15 hours of deliberations — all are at the core of Constitutional protections and 250 years of American jurisprudence,” he wrote.

Smith previously told Fox News Digital that the HOA “categorically denies it interfered with the Morrises’ right to purchase and enjoy their home free from discrimination” and “has always strived to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment for all residents.”

Around 349,000 Idahoans live in neighborhoods governed by HOAs, just under 20% of the state’s total population, according to 2021 data from the Foundation for Community Association Research.

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San Francisco, CA

Beloved Chit Chat Cafe at closed Pacifica Municipal Pier demolished

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Beloved Chit Chat Cafe at closed Pacifica Municipal Pier demolished



Demolition of a beloved café at the closed Pacifica Municipal Pier began on Tuesday after being red-tagged last week.

Heavy equipment began tearing into the Chit Chat Café at about 11 a.m. The café, a local favorite at the base of the pier since the 1990s, was shut down when cracks were observed forming in the pier’s concrete last week. 

The pier has been closed at times during strong winter storms and heavy waves, but the cause of the current structural damage has is still being assessed by structural engineers. 

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Heavy machinery tears into the Chit Chat Cafe at the base of the Pacifica Municipal Pier, June 9, 2026.

KPIX


Owners of the café said the demolition began before they were allowed to go in and retrieve any of their equipment or belongings, and the community is rallying to help them with an online fundraiser.

On Monday night the Pacifica City Council extended an emergency declaration over the pier’s condition, which has worsened from cracks in the concrete to a large chasm. It is not yet know whether the pier itself, built in 1973, will be repaired or demolished and rebuilt.

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In December 2023, the pier was closed after high tides and large waves damaged it. The pier reopened weeks later after undergoing nearly $20 million in repairs. 



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Denver, CO

Trammell Crow, PCCP secure Denver area’s largest industrial lease in years

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Trammell Crow, PCCP secure Denver area’s largest industrial lease in years


Trammell Crow Company and PCCP inked a massive lease deal for a suburban Denver industrial complex that just began construction. 

The development giants landed an undisclosed tenant for a full building at Crossroads 25, a 76-acre industrial complex in Thornton set to encompass roughly 1.1 million square feet once complete, the Denver Business Journal reported. 

At nearly 410,000 square feet, the deal marks the largest industrial lease in the Denver area since 2024. 

Trammell Crow and PCCP purchased the land, at the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and E-470, from an affiliate of Omaha, Nebraska-based Noddle Companies for $18.9 million. Noddle purchased it in 2020 as part of a nearly 200-acre land acquisition for $19.5 million. 

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The development will eventually span 1.1 million square feet of industrial space. The first phase consists of 828,000 square feet across four buildings. The recent lease brings the four-building phase one to 49 percent leased.

CBRE’s Tyler Carner represented Noddle in the land sale. 

The Denver metro’s industrial market had a direct vacancy rate of 9.3 percent in the first quarter, according to JLL. More than 4 million square feet was under construction, and absorption was negative after hefty completions last year.

The first four buildings in Crossroads 25 are expected to be delivered in the third quarter of next year. The complex is projected to be fully complete in 2030. 

The previous industrial lease record in the Denver metro area was held by Georgia-based third-party logistics company BroadRange Logistics, which signed a long-term lease for more than 1.1 million square feet at the 76 Commerce Center industrial complex in Brighton. That property’s landlord, Hyde Development, filed suit against BroadRange last week, claiming the logistics firm defaulted on its leases, and Hyde is seeking more than $32 million in damages. 

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Chris Malone Méndez

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Seattle, WA

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson mayor ripped after unveiling fleet of tiny homes likened to porta-potty drug dens

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Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson mayor ripped after unveiling fleet of tiny homes likened to porta-potty drug dens


Progressive Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is being ripped for unveiling a village of tiny homes being likened to porta-potties — with no rules stopping the homeless people who move in from doing drugs.

Wilson, 43, previewed 50 of the 70-square-foot units on Sunday — while readily conceding that she failed on her promise of having half of the 1,000 planned units ready in time for the World Cup, which starts Thursday.

The tiny units — barely bigger than a portable toilet, about the size of a jail cell and equipped with just a single bed and desk — cost $16,000 each to build, with those moving in sharing toilets and other facilities staffed 24/7.

Wilson, 43, previewed 50 of the 1,000-planned single-adult pallet homes on Sunday as part of the liberal city’s push to expand 24/7 transitional housing with wraparound services. AP Photo/Manuel Valdes

The woke mayor said the units are for homeless people suffering “complex problems related to substance abuse” or mental disorders — but without forcing them to seek help or even stay off the drugs that got them there.

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“The process of recovery is really complicated and difficult, and so, we’re not demanding that people be abstinent when they enter this village,” the Democratic socialist mayor said, according to KOMO.

“The goal is to help people successfully move from homelessness toward stability and housing; that’s exactly what this site is designed to do,” she vowed, without citing evidence.

Local advocates quickly ripped the plan, with many saying it will only make drug use more widespread there, raising the risks for anyone living nearby.

Andrea Suarez, founder of the homeless outreach organization We Heart Seattle, ridiculed the mayor’s program, saying that the drug use will add to widespread crime as “the bodies are piling up.”

“Drugs aren’t free,” she told Fox News of the “deadly” drugs like “super meth and fentanyl” that “will be allowed on this property.”

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Seattle’s lefty Mayor Katie Wilson was ripped online after unveiling a fleet of tiny homes for the homeless ahead of the World Cup. Getty Images

“So what do people have to do to fuel their addiction? They have to porch-prowl, smash and grab, retail theft, syphon gas … prostitution,” she predicted, saying locals will have to “be on lockdown.”

“It’s very hard to get better and seek treatment when the fox is guarding the henhouse,” she said, saying that the addicts will be surrounded by dealers and fellow users. “It’s very hard to get sober when everything makes you actually more comfortable being a drug addict.”

Other critics were wary of the state the homes could fall into without rules stopping them from becoming “overdose incubators.”

Digital critics also took aim at the micro-homes, comparing the tiny units to an outhouse and blasting them as “overdose incubators” that will reek of urine. AP Photo/Manuel Valdes
Residents of the 70-square-foot units are not required to undergo any behavioral or recovery treatment. AP Photo/Manuel Valdes

“Each one of these tiny houses will turn into a tiny outhouse. Good luck cleaning that human sewer up,” one naysayer fumed on X.

Another raged: “How much you willing to bet that within a year, all those tiny homes will be torn down crack houses smelling like heroin laced urine.”

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Another blasted: “Glad Katie could give drug dealers and criminals a home base for their crimes against the people of Seattle.”

Local advocates have raised concerns about potential drug use spiraling out of control. AP Photo/Manuel Valdes

“Dumb,” one critic slammed. “Now they just get to use drugs in those tiny homes. How about we get them off the drugs!!”

Wilson said an additional 25 sleeper units will be installed at the Bayside Enhanced Shelter by the end of June, with as many as 300 new pods expected citywide by summer’s end.

That still falls way short of her promise of 500 units in time for Seattle’s World Cup matches.

“Is it a failure not to have created 500 units by now? As long as there are thousands of people sleeping unsheltered on our streets, yes, we are failing,” the lefty mayor said defensively.

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