The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of free speech allowing the Christian flag to fly at Boston City Hall after initially denying it. According to Christian Headlines, the Christian civic organization Camp Constitution requested to have their flag flown among dozens of others at Boston City Hall, but the city of Boston refused their request on the grounds that it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. After taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, the judges decided 9-0 that the city of Boston was in the wrong and the Christian flag can fly among the others.
Christian Headlines reports that, “the court’s 9-0 decision concerns a unique program in Boston that permits private groups to fly flags of their choosing outside Boston City Hall. The court noted that the city approved ‘hundreds of requests to raise dozens of different flags’ – that is, until the Christian civic organization Camp Constitution requested that the Christian flag be flown.” Justice Stephen Breyer noted that other flags including the LGBT Pride flag, a flag of a bank, and flags of other countries were allowed to be flown outside City Hall. It is for these reasons, he asserted, that the Court decided that “Boston’s flag raising program does not express government speech,” and cannot exclude speech based on a ‘religious viewpoint’ as that would constitute as discrimination.
According to Christian Headlines, Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver explained that “this case is so much more significant than a flag. Boston openly discriminated against viewpoints it disfavored when it opened the flagpoles to all applicants and then excluded Christian viewpoints. Government cannot censor religious viewpoints under the guise of government speech.”
While many seem to use the First Amendment and the Establishment Clause to promote their own anti-religious attitudes, the U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the right to free speech and religious expression. In this case, the U.S. Constitution and those vowing to protect it have ensured that America remains a beacon of religious freedom and the freedom of expression.