BOSTON – The city of Boston has agreed to pay more than $2.1 million to a Christian law enforcement organization that supported a court challenge after the city refused to display a Christian flag outside the Building City, a case that went all the way to the US Supreme Court. .
The settlement announced Tuesday by Liberty Counsel covers attorneys’ fees and other costs related to the legal battle that began in 2017, when the resident of Mayor Hal Shurtleff and his Camp Constitution team to raise the flag on one of the three poles at City Hall. Plaza to mark Constitution Day.
“We are pleased that after five years of litigation and one victory in the United States Supreme Court, we have joined forces with Hal Shurtleff to allow freedom to fly to Boston, the cradle of freedom. ,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement. .
The US, state and city flags are flown outside the building, but the city flag is sometimes removed and replaced with another.
Between 2005 and 2017, the city approved 284 consecutive requests from private organizations to fly the flag, without objection, before denying Shurtleff’s request, Liberty Counsel said.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in May, that the city violated Shurtleff’s right to free speech for his “religious opinion”.
The Christian flag – white, with a red cross on a blue background in the upper left corner – finally flew for a few hours outside the City Hall, on August 3, during his followers and sing praise songs.
The city has since passed an ordinance clarifying the rules for raising flags.
Liberty Counsel was entitled to attorneys’ fees as the authorized party in the case, the city said in a statement.
The city’s Department of Justice determined that $2.125 million was due based on credit information provided by Liberty Counsel and their own analysis, the statement said.
“The settlement at this time allows the city to avoid the costs and uncertainty associated with further litigation in this case,” the city said in a statement.
The case has been decided, according to Liberty Counsel’s Staver, “including the overturning of the ‘Lemon Trial’ in 1971, which Justice (Antonin) Scalia once described as a ‘ghoul in a horror movie of the night.’ The case of Shurtleff v. City of Boston masked this evil spirit that has been anathema to the First Amendment for 51 years.
