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Constitutional Law Keyed to Feldman
Shurtleff v. City of Boston
Citation:
596 U.S. 243 (2022)Facts
Boston City Hall Plaza features three flagpoles: one flying the American flag, one flying the Massachusetts flag, and a third typically flying Boston’s city flag. For years, Boston allowed private groups to hold ceremonies on the plaza and temporarily raise flags of their choosing on the third pole. Between 2005 and 2017, Boston approved approximately 50 unique flags for 284 ceremonies, including flags of various countries, the Pride flag, and banners for community organizations. The city had no written policies about what flags could be flown and routinely approved all applications without reviewing the flags beforehand. In 2017, Harold Shurtleff, director of Camp Constitution, applied to hold an event celebrating the civic and social contributions of the Christian community and requested to raise what he described as a “Christian flag.” A city official denied this request, citing concerns that flying a religious flag at City Hall could violate the Establishment Clause, and noted there was no record of the city previously flying a religious flag.
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