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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Shurtleff v. City of Boston
Citation:
596 U.S. 243 (2022)Facts
Outside Boston City Hall, there are three flagpoles. The city typically flies the American flag on the first pole, the Massachusetts flag on the second, and the city’s own flag on the third. For years, Boston allowed private groups to hold ceremonies on City Hall Plaza during which they could temporarily raise flags of their choosing on the third pole. Between 2005 and 2017, Boston approved approximately 50 unique flags for 284 such ceremonies, most representing foreign countries but some representing groups or causes. In 2017, Harold Shurtleff, director of Camp Constitution, applied to hold an event celebrating the civic contributions of the Christian community and requested to raise what he described as a “Christian flag.” The commissioner of Boston’s Property Management Department worried that flying a religious flag could violate the Establishment Clause and found no past instance of the city having raised such a flag. He therefore denied the request to raise the flag while still allowing the event to be held on the plaza.
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