In
Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Abbott, (5th Cir., April 3, 2020), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals remanded to the district court a lawsuit by Freedom From Religion Foundation which was denied the right to display its "Bill of Rights Nativity Scene" in the Texas State Capitol building. The court rejected Texas' sovereign immunity defense and held that under the
Ex part Young exception an injunction barring future conduct could be issued. However, it said, under the 11th Amendment the district court cannot grant retrospective relief. It went on:
Among out sister circuits, however, “there is broad agreement that, even in limited and nonpublic forums, investing governmental officials with boundless discretion over access to the forum violates the First Amendment.” ...
[W]e hold that prior restraints on speech in limited public forums must contain neutral criteria sufficient to prevent (1) censorship that is unreasonable in light of the purpose served by the forum and (2) viewpoint-based censorship. Because the district court only considered whether the public purpose criteria at issue in this case was reasonable, we REVERSE and REMAND for the district court to apply the correct unbridled discretion analysis in the first instance.
