CITY OF BLOOMFIELD V. FELIX
Case Name: City of Bloomfield v. Felix
Type of Case: Establishment Clause
Court: United States Supreme Court
Case Number: 17-60
Current Status: Petition for certiorari denied
Cases applying the Establishment Clause to public displays of religious monuments are notoriously tangled and inconsistent. No clear test for such challenges has emerged, and courts attempting to apply the existing tests come to vastly disparate results, demonstrating that as a practical matter, judges can just rule for displays they like and against displays they don’t.
This case presented an opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to establish a simple test and return to the original intent of the Establishment Clause – prohibiting the direct establishment of an official government religion or the compulsion of religious observation. We filed an amicus brief urging the Court to hear the case, but unfortunately it denied the petition.