The city of Boston is being sued by a religious group for refusing to allow a Christian flag to fly at City Hall, arguing that the refusal is religious discrimination, Fox News reports.
Boston denied a request from Camp Constitution, a Christian summer camp, to fly a Christian flag during a demonstration at City Hall Plaza on Constitution Day in August, 2017, according to UniversalHub. Hal Shurtleff, the camp’s operator, filed a lawsuit and attempted to get an injunction to force the city to fly the flag, but this was denied by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper. This ruling was later upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston.
Shurtleff filed a federal lawsuit against the city last week, according to Fox News.
"There's no question that it is an unconstitutional act and originally said it was a violation of the First Amendment, which I find ironic," he told Fox News. "I'm optimistic the lawsuit will go our way."
The lawsuit notes that the city allowed flags with religious imagery, including the Turkish and Vatican flags.
“Yet, despite all of these many flag raisings containing religious symbols and imagery, and the City’s allowing the official flag of the Catholic Church, Camp Constitution’s proposed flag raising was denied because it was ‘religious,’” the suit states. “There can be no dispute that the City’s denial impermissibly discriminated between religion and non-religion, and discriminated between religious sects. Both violate the Establishment Clause.”
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