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Page Number: 6.0

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SHURTLEFF v. BOSTON 

Opinion of the Court 

Christian  flag.  Boston  refused.  At  that  time,  Boston  ad-
mits,  it  had  no  written  policy  limiting  use  of  the  flagpole
based on the content of a flag.  The parties dispute whether, 
on  these  facts,  Boston  reserved  the  pole  to  fly  flags  that
communicate  governmental  messages,  or  instead  opened 
the flagpole for citizens to express their own views.  If the 
former, Boston is free to choose the flags it flies without the 
constraints of the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. 
If the latter, the Free Speech Clause prevents Boston from
refusing a flag based on its viewpoint.

We  conclude  that,  on  balance,  Boston  did  not  make  the 
raising and flying of private groups’ flags a form of govern-
ment speech.  That means, in turn, that Boston’s refusal to 
let Shurtleff and Camp Constitution raise their flag based
on  its  religious  viewpoint  “abridg[ed]”  their  “freedom  of 
speech.”  U. S. Const., Amdt. I. 

I 
A 

The  flagpole  at  issue  stands  at  the  entrance  of  Boston 
City  Hall.    See  Appendix,  infra.  Built  in  the  late  1960s, 
Boston City Hall is a raw concrete structure, an example of
the brutalist style.  Critics of the day heralded it as a public
building that “articulates its functions” with “strength, dig-
nity, grace, and even glamor.”  J. Conti, A New City Hall:
Boston’s  Boost  for  Urban  Renewal,  Wall  Street  Journal, 
Feb.  12,  1969,  p. 14.    (The  design  has  since  proved  some-
what more controversial.  See, e.g., E. Mason, Boston City
Hall  Named  World’s  Ugliest  Building,  Boston  Herald 
(Nov. 15, 2008), https://www.bostonherald.com/2008/11/15/
boston-city-hall-named-worlds-ugliest-building.)    More  to 
the point, Boston City Hall sits on City Hall Plaza, a 7-acre 
expanse paved with New England brick.  Inspired by open
public spaces like the Piazza del Campo in Siena, the plaza 
was designed to be “ ‘Boston’s fairground,’ ” a “public gath-
ering  spac[e]”  for  the  people.    N.  DeCosta-Klipa,  Why  Is