## Facts

- A privately funded monument honoring William S. Mosher was installed in 1956 on the lawn of the Harris County Civil Courthouse.
- The monument included a pedestal with Mosher’s name and a glass-topped case displaying an open Bible turned to passages associated with his Christian faith.
- After years of neglect, the Bible was stolen and the monument deteriorated.
- In the mid-1990s, a state district judge publicly associated with an effort to place Christianity into government life led a refurbishment.
- The refurbishment included placing a new Bible in the display, adding illumination highlighting the Bible, and conducting a publicly promoted rededication ceremony with overtly religious content.
- Kay Staley, an atheist attorney, regularly passed the monument while visiting the courthouse for work and alleged the display conveyed government endorsement of Christianity.
- Staley sued Harris County under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking relief under the Establishment Clause.

## Issues

1. Whether Staley had standing based on repeated, direct, unwelcome contact with the religious display on courthouse grounds.
2. Whether the monument, in its contemporary context after refurbishment and rededication, had a secular purpose and a primary effect that did not advance religion under Establishment Clause doctrine.
3. Whether the display conveyed governmental endorsement of Christianity to an objective observer.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment for Staley.
- The court held Staley had standing because her regular exposure to the challenged display constituted a direct and personal injury in an Establishment Clause context.
- Applying the Lemon framework as informed by the endorsement inquiry, the court concluded the monument’s recent history showed a predominantly religious purpose.
- The court further held an objective observer, aware of the monument’s refurbishment, illumination, and rededication, would perceive governmental endorsement of Christianity.
- The court affirmed injunctive relief requiring removal of the Bible from the monument and affirmed the award of attorney’s fees and expenses.

## Legal Principles

- Establishment Clause standing may be satisfied by direct, personal, and unwelcome contact with an allegedly unconstitutional religious display on government property.
- In evaluating purpose and effect, courts consider the display’s full contemporary context, including later governmental actions that shape public meaning, not only the original installation.
- Under the endorsement inquiry, the question is whether an objective observer, informed of the display’s history and setting, would view the government as endorsing a particular faith.
- A courthouse setting and official grounds heighten the likelihood that a prominent sectarian display will be attributed to the government as state speech rather than private expression.
- A passive monument with religious content may be unconstitutional when recent governmental conduct recharacterizes it as a current religious endorsement rather than a historical or commemorative display.

## Conclusion

The court held that the monument’s post-refurbishment presentation of an illuminated open Bible on courthouse grounds, combined with its religiously charged rededication, communicated county endorsement of Christianity, violating the Establishment Clause; it therefore affirmed injunctive relief and attorney’s fees.


Staley v. Harris County, 461 F.3d 504 (5th Cir. 2006)