OPINION | Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those held by Sarah Palin.
Christians received great news as the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case about whether a Christian flag is allowed to fly outside of Boston’s City Hall.
The public access flagpole is regularly used by various community groups. Flags are flown for a short period of time, sometimes lasting only hours.
In the past 12 years, a Christian flag was permitted to be flown 284 times.
Suddenly, liberal officials in Massachusetts denied a request in 2017 to flag a Christian flag. This triggered a lawsuit by Harold Shurtleff.
Lower courts have ruled against the lawyers representing Harold Shurtleff. Now the case has reached the Supreme Court.
Shurtleff says it’s “ludicrous” to believe that allowing Christian groups access to the public flagpole constitutes the government establishing an official religion, which the First Amendment forbids.
“‘The flagpole that stands prominently at the city’s seat of government is the means by which the city communicates its own messages,’ Boston’s lawyers told the Supreme Court. The city uses it as a bully pulpit and has not turned it over ‘to private parties as a forum to pronounce their own messages,’” NBC reported.
First up: The city o Boston allowed various groups to fly flags outside city hall, but when a group submitted a flag bearing a Christian cross, the city refused to fly it. Was that a First Amendment violation? @AHoweBlogger has the preview: https://t.co/M7YyCwyAPC
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) January 18, 2022
“When the government opens its public property for private speakers, it has to treat everybody equally,” said David Cole, ACLU national legal director.
“This case is really about private citizens’ access to government property to express themselves. And that access is critical to our ability to speak to each other, to express our views and the like.”
The @ACLU usually opposes government displays of religious symbols as violating separation of church and state. But in this #SCOTUS case, we argue Boston must display a Christian flag. Here’s why. https://t.co/L0Bq72ChVa
— David Cole (@DavidColeACLU) January 16, 2022
More from Western Journal:
The American Civil Liberties Union says banning the flag is wrong, according to ABC…
The Anti-Defamation League, however, sides with the city, according to NBC.
“The value to such groups of the ‘photo op’ of a Nazi flag, the Confederate flag, or some other white supremacist banner flying over Boston City Hall should not be underestimated,” the group said.
Shurtleff made his request as part of Camp Constitution, which he founded and which has as part of its mission “to enhance understanding of the country’s Judeo-Christian heritage.”
The flag he wants to fly is a cross in a blue square on a white field.
“It’s a public access flagpole,” Shurtleff told ABC.
“It’s kind of ludicrous to think flying a flag on a flagpole for maybe an hour or two will somehow get people to think, ‘Oh my goodness, look at the city of Boston now endorsing the Protestant or the Christian faith.”