Supreme Court Rules Boston Violated First Amendment by Refusing to Fly Christian Flag outside City Hall

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the city of Boston violated the First Amendment by refusing to fly a local organization’s Christian flag in front of city hall, though it had flown other groups’ flags.

The decision in Shurtleff v. the City of Boston was unanimous, with the Court ruling that Boston should have allowed the Christian group’s flag because the flags did not represent government speech.

“We conclude that Boston’s flag-raising program does not express government speech,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court. “As a result, the city’s refusal to let (the group) fly their flag based on its religious viewpoint violated the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”

The Court said the city had created a public forum by allowing private organizations to use a flagpole in front of City Hall for commemorative events. Therefore, the flagpole must be open to all because the government can’t restrict speech based on a speaker’s viewpoint in a public forum.

The case was brought by Camp Constitution, which aims to “to enhance understanding of the country’s Judeo-Christian heritage.” 

The group’s founder, Harold Shurtleff, applied to use one of three flagpoles in front of City Hall to fly a flag featuring a Latin cross during an event that would include speeches about the city’s history from local clergy.

He sued after the city rejected his request. Boston argued that the flag selection was an expression of the city’s views and therefore flying a Christian flag would be an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

However, the city approved 284 flag raising events with zero denials before the Camp Constitution incident, according to court records cited by NBC News. Flags featured on the flagpole included those celebrating veterans, sports teams and LGBT pride.

The Biden administration supported Camp Constitution in the case, saying in court papers that because the city used the flagpole as a public forum, it had unlawfully discriminated against the group based on viewpoint.

The Supreme Court decision overturns a lower court ruling that found the city did not violate Shurtleff’s right to freedom of speech.

Boston paused the flag program in October in light of the lawsuit in an effort to make sure that the city could not be forced to “publicize messages antithetical to its own.” The city argued that requiring it to allow anyone to use the flagpole could mean allowing flags advocating division or intolerance, such as those featuring a swastika or a terrorist group.