Camp Constitution's Christian Flag Flies Over Boston City Hall

BOSTON — A Christian flag was raised over Boston City Hall Wednesday morning after the City was sued for "violating the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment" by refusing to raise it a few years back.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Boston violated the First Amendment rights of Camp Constitution, a group that wanted to raise a Christian flag on a pole outside City Hall in 2017.

Boston City Hall has three flagpoles and leaves one available for private organizations. Over the last decade, the city has approved more than 280 flyings but has only rejected one - Camp Constitution's Christian flag which contains a red cross on a blue field against a white background.

The City argued that flying the flag was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion, but the Supreme Court disagreed back in May, with Justice Stephen Breyer saying that "for years, Boston has allowed private groups to request use of the flagpole to raise flags of their choosing."

Since Boston created an open forum, it is not allowed to discriminate based on different perspectives, the court ruled, adding that if Boston had flown flags to communicate its own messages, it would be immune from free speech violation claims.

According to the ruling, the court said the flag display amounted to a public forum, and because other groups were allowed to raise their flags in celebration, the city could not discriminate on the basis of the religious group's viewpoint without violating the Constitution citing freedom of speech.