Next week the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Shurtleff v. Boston , a freedom-of-speech case that concerns a flagpole on Boston’s City Hall Plaza. The facts of the controversy are simple. The issues at stake are profound. Related: Supreme Court agrees to review case involving right to fly Christian flag outside Boston City Hall There are actually three flagpoles in front of City Hall. One always flies the American flag. The second is reserved for the flag of Massachusetts. The third pole is handled differently. Ordinarily, the City of Boston flag flies from the third flagpole. But City Hall has a longstanding policy of letting private groups raise some other flag on that pole, typically in conjunction with an event taking place on the plaza below. Between June 2005 and July 2017, the city received 284 applications from various community, civic, or social organizations wishing to hold flag-raising ceremonies. Every one of them was approved . Over the course of those 12 years, the banners of scores of countries and causes were temporarily flown from the third pole. Among them were the flags of Mexico, China, Brazil, and Puerto Rico, the LGBT Pride flag, the Juneteenth flag, […]
