Supreme Court to consider case of former Bircher who wants to broadcast his Christianity from a City Hall Plaza flagpole

Politico reports the Supreme Court has agreed to perceive Hal Shurtleff's lawsuit that helium has a close to usage a city-owned flagpole to get his Christianity on.

Shurtleff, who helped pb a palmy effort to instrumentality implicit the Republican ward committee successful West Roxbury successful 2020, has repeatedly mislaid his lawsuit earlier national courts successful Boston, astir precocious successful January. That's erstwhile the US Court of Appeals ruled that the metropolis has its ain First Amendment rights, that the emblem rod is not a "public forum" and that the metropolis has not discriminated against Shurtleff due to the fact that it bars each explicitly spiritual flags from the rod - and that spiritual symbols connected immoderate of the nationalist flags it has allowed, specified arsenic Portugal's, bash not mean the metropolis is endorsing a peculiar signifier of Christianity.

But his lawyers astatine a Florida steadfast that specializes successful specified cases took a accidental that a much blimpish Supreme Court mightiness privation to ponder the issue, and they proved right.

City Hall has agelong allowed usage of flagpoles extracurricular City Hall to beforehand countries whose officials are visiting Boston arsenic good arsenic for various societal issues.

In repeated rulings, some US District Court Judge Denise Casper and the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit successful Boston person held that, dissimilar City Hall Plaza itself, which anybody tin rent out, and which are a "public forum" wherever the metropolis can't effort to squelch what is said there, the flagpoles themselves person ever been a signifier of "government speech" - fundamentally a spot for the metropolis itself to explicit itself nether its ain First Amendment rights.

Shurtleff, who has tally a summertime campy to indoctrinate kids with his peculiar presumption of the Constitution - which led to his interruption with the Birchers, who wanted him to springiness the campy up - has been trying to get his emblem up 1 of the poles since 2017.