Hal Shurtleff, who sued Boston for the right to fly what he claims is a Christian flag over City Hall - and won in a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court - will get to unfurl his banner over City Hall Plaza for two hours on Aug. 3 under a settlement reached with city attorneys.
The proposed agreement to let him hoist his flag at 11 a.m. that day still needs the approval of US District Court Judge Denise Casper.
Shurtleff, his Florida lawyers and the city are still negotiating how much the city will pay him for ultimately losing its attempt to keep him away from one of the three flagpoles. If the two sides can't reach agreement on that, Shurtleff, a former John Birch organizer who moved to New Hampshire, will ask Casper to figure out how much the city owes him.
| Attachment | Size |
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 Proposed flag-raising agreement | 106.87 KB |
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Comments
Who’s gonna tell him.
By Thomas Sullivan
Mon, 07/18/2022 - 6:37pm
Who’s gonna tell this guy that Jesus was black?
Who gonna tell this
By anon
Mon, 07/18/2022 - 9:02pm
Guy Jesus was mostly likely Arab, not black.
Also, where does it mention the guy thinks Jesus was European.
Jews are Arabs?
By JonT
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 10:51am
I guess we can declare peace in the Middle East now.
Some of them are
By lbb
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 11:19am
"Arab" is an ethnicity, not a religion. There are Jewish, Muslim and Christian Arabs, and probably Arabs of every other religion you can name.
Sometimes
By eeka
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 3:45pm
I am both. It's an overlapping Venn diagram (think MasterCard logo).
Jesus was not black, he was
By anon
Mon, 07/18/2022 - 9:22pm
Jesus was not black, he was most likely an olive skinned Levantine.
Different people view Jesus in different ways.
By mplo
Wed, 07/20/2022 - 5:22pm
I was once in a church in Europe, where there were stained glass window pictures of Mary and the Christ-child in all different colors and nationalities. Interesting to see.
Satanic Templers and FSMers
By John Costello
Mon, 07/18/2022 - 6:44pm
You are on the clock. Get your flag up there post haste.
Probably not going to happen
By tachometer
Mon, 07/18/2022 - 7:03pm
This flag raising is part of the settlement so I wouldn't use it as a barometer for what will happen going forward as there will be changes in the program if it exists at all.
Though I'm not a lawyer I read the decision and it is really narrow. It came down to whether the flagpole was speech from the city or a public forum open to everyone. The initial refusal was because a city worker assumed that it would be a first amendment violation for the city seemingly endorsing a religion or religious group. However, because there was no real application process, guidelines with criteria for what was allowed or not, and in the history of outside groups requesting their flag to be flown no group had ever been denied the court said it was a public forum and the city lost.
They have put the whole program on hold with this flag raising as an exception and tied to those legal cases. However, my understanding is that if the city creates an application process with guidelines and it is clearly for a group to be honored or recognized by the city then it will be proper to deny any religious group going forward (at least until SCOTUS finishes eviscerating the first amendment).
Yet anotyer disaster brought
By anon
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 7:47am
Yet anotyer disaster brought to us courtesy of the government of the city of Boston. World class.
Wow
By lbb
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 9:04am
I envy you the tranquility of your life that this amounts to a "disaster".
The city should have just let him to begin with
By StillFromDorchester
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 8:16am
It's a big nothing burger, no one would even blink an eye and it would be over, giving this guy the attention and wasting time and money disputing it was silly.
"The city" isn't quite right
By tachometer
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 9:21am
If you read the decision you'll see that this was a very informal program. The incident in question basically involved one city worker realizing that this was a group that was religious in nature and refusing to fly the flag because he thought that it would be a first amendment establishment clause violation.
When SCOTUS finally looked at the program they decided that there was nothing backing it as "official" speech by the city and that it was a public forum which should be open to all.
So saying that "The City" should have just let him isn't really accurate when it was just one guy who made a decision on the fly but misjudged (pun intended) the eventual ramifications of doing what he thought was the right thing.
It went to the Supreme court
By StillFromDorchester
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 12:19pm
Saying the City fits in my opinion. and it fits with reporting on this site
I realize that
By tachometer
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 1:23pm
The city is the one that was rightfully named in the case.
I still think it's of value to point out that the program of flying other flags was so informal that it basically came down to the decision of a single person with no policy guiding it. It is specifically because these stories are usually framed as "the city" on one side that I think a lot of people miss that aspect of the original incident.
The City fought this
By StillFromDorchester
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 3:48pm
Maybe one guy made the initial decision but the city let it get all the way to the supreme court without over ruling him.
So does this mean I can fly a
By anon
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 9:22am
So does this mean I can fly a pro-choice flag on August 3rd for the same 2 hours?
I'm not suggesting that folks that are pro-women making their own healthcare decisions should find out what time the flag will fly and head down there with their own flags....really, I'm not.
Thus settles
By dan r
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 1:12pm
Hal’s grievance boner.
Take THAT, Illuminati stooges and Chinese Communists!
A proper salute
By Daan
Tue, 07/19/2022 - 1:15pm
Given what Shurtleff’s camp reminds me of, and how extremist Christians are telling who is pure and impure, I mean who they claim God favors and hates as abominations, a proper salute to this flag raising will be an outstretched arm, hand facing down, with pronouncements of Seig Jesus.
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