WOBURN -- The United States Supreme Court ruled 9-0 Monday that the city of Boston acted unconstitutionally when it denied a request to fly a Christian flag at City Hall, a decision Massachusetts Republican Chairman Jim Lyons said "completely exposes the left's complete disdain for the First Amendment."
"In the left-wing echo-chamber, we've learned that free speech is acceptable but only when it's on their terms," Lyons said. "Today's unanimous decision should hopefully remind them that speech is a constitutionally-protected right."
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that the city of Boston violated the Constitution when it rejected an application to fly a Christian flag on one of the three flagpoles in front of city hall. Because the city program that allowed other private groups to raise and fly their own flags was not speech by the city, the court held, the city could not refuse permission to fly a particular flag because of the views that it expressed.
The flag that Harold Shurtleff, the director of a group known as Camp Constitution, wanted to fly on City Hall Plaza in September 2017 featured a red cross on a blue field, set against a white background. When the city denied Shurtleff’s application, Shurtleff went to court, where he alleged that the denial violated (among other things) his right to free speech.
Lyons added that it should not have taken a Supreme Court ruling to have determined that Boston City Hall, dominated by Democrats for generations, was in violation of Shurtleff's constitutional rights.
"The fact that the city spent so time and money defending what was clearly an indefensible position is absolutely shameful," Lyons said. "It should never have come to this."
Retiring Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out in the ruling that the city's denial of Shurtleff's request was the only flag denial made out of 284 requests submitted between 2005 and 2017.
