The battle between a man who orchestrated massive Christmas extravaganzas and his former homeowners’ association could be appealed to the Supreme Court after a lower court handed down its long-awaited ruling.

“It was made clear that a jury could find … that a hostile atmosphere was created, that our family was discriminated against,” Jeremy Morris told Fox News Digital about the verdict.

Morris, an attorney, became popularly known as the “Christmas Lawyer” after gaining international notoriety for organizing a five-day holiday light show that drew thousands of revelers to his former home just outside Hayden, Idaho.

In 2017, a jury unanimously agreed that his HOA discriminated against him on the basis of religion by trying to stop his Christmas show.

But in a stunning twist, a federal judge overturned that ruling and ordered Morris to pay the HOA more than $111,000 in legal fees.

Morris challenged the ruling in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard arguments in June 2020.

Four years later, a three-judge panel ruled partially in favor of the HOA and partially in favor of Morris, leading to a new jury trial.

But Morris said he is “absolutely” considering an appeal to the Supreme Court first.

How the Christmas Light Fight Began

Morris made an offer on his house just after throwing his first light show at his former home over Christmas 2014.

He informed the West Hayden Estates homeowners association that he planned to repeat the event, and the HOA immediately sought to tear down the Christmas display, arguing that it would likely violate three parts 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.

Crucially, the letter also considered whether “non-Christians” would be bothered by the display and expressed concern that the show would draw “possible undesirables” to the neighborhood.

Morris wrote back, claiming that there was nothing applicable to his event in the CC&R and that the board was engaging in religious discrimination. His family closed on the house and moved in.

When Morris began decorating his house with about 200,000 individual lights that fall, the HOA’s attorney sent him a letter threatening legal action if he hosted the event without board approval.

The show went on anyway. Costumed characters, musicians, a children’s choir, a live nativity scene and even a camel welcomed the spectators.

Morris rented shuttle buses to transport visitors to the event, and volunteers directed cars through the streets around the house, according to court documents.

Tensions grew leading up to the Morris family’s next show.

Neighbors were accused of harassing spectators.

A bus driver said an exasperated resident repeatedly tried to stage an accident as shuttles passed.

Morris said his family received threats, including an in-person confrontation that was partially caught on camera in which a neighbor offered to “take care of him.”

Morris said earlier Fox News Digital that he did not want to take legal action and that he offered to waive his right 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.

The jury unanimously sided with Morris in the discrimination suit, but the judge reversed 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 reversing the verdict and ordering Morris to pay the HOA’s attorney fees, concluding that the case was not about religious discrimination, but rather the Morris family’s violation of neighborhood rules.

The judge’s order also permanently prohibited the Morris family from holding another Christmas program that violated HOA rules, which is now a contentious issue since they moved from Idaho.

The Morris family appealed, and in June 2020 their case went to the 9th Circuit.

9th Circuit Court of Appeals says letter didn’t violate law, but HOA may have created hostile environment

Now, four years later, a three-judge panel upheld Winmill’s reversal of the jury’s verdict, concluding that a reasonable jury should not have found the 2015 HOA letter indicated a preference for a “non-religious individual” to buy the Morrises’ home.

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

The panel’s decision was split, with a lengthy dissent by Judge Daniel P. Collins, who suggested the HOA’s conduct was more consistent with making the Morris family “unwelcome” than with enforcing rules.

Collins suggested the board’s actions also contributed to harassment of the Morrises by other residents, physical confrontations and a death threat.

The HOA “categorically denies that it interfered with the Morrises’ right to purchase and enjoy their home free of discrimination” and “has always strived to promote an inclusive and welcoming environment for all residents,” its attorney, Peter Smith, wrote in an email to Fox News Digital.

“We look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate in court that the association acted legally,” Smith continued. “We are confident that the legal proceedings will ultimately vindicate the association and demonstrate that it has not created a hostile neighborhood for the Morris family.”

“We can retry the case … and I really think we would win like we did before,” Morris told Fox News Digital.

But he said the 9th Circuit’s decision regarding the letter sets a troubling precedent and suggested the result would have been different if “non-Christian” were substituted for some other faith.

“If we were to interpret this decision strictly, people of any faith can be discriminated against. You can admit that you are discriminating against them,” he said. “We all know that no court would do that, but a court just did sure you can do that to a Christian.”

He added that “Christians are no longer in the United States with the same property rights as other people.”

The Supreme Court is asked to review more than 7,000 cases each year and usually agrees to hear fewer than 100.

Separate suit planned against Idaho State Bar

Morris also told Fox News Digital that he will sue the Idaho State Bar over an alleged “shakedown” last year, which he compared to mob tactics.

Representatives of the Idaho State Bar reviewed comments Morris made about the judge who dismissed his case — including that he was “corrupt” and an “anti-Christian bigot” who tried to “rig a jury.”

The bar threatened to file disciplinary charges under the Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct, but offered to dismiss the case if Morris surrendered his Idaho law license, according to correspondence shared with Fox News.

The Bar Counsel noted that Morris has moved out of state and the ongoing “disciplinary complaint” has affected his ability to obtain employment in his new home.

Morris says he has notified the bar that he plans to sue for $10 million.

A representative for the Idaho State Bar declined to comment on potential litigation. The spokesman also declined to comment on Morris’ possible disciplinary action other than to say no formal case has been filed.