Shurtleff v. City of Boston

Shurtleff v. City of Boston
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 18, 2022 Decided May 2, 2022
Full case name	Harold Shurtleff, et al. v. City of Boston, Massachusetts, et al.
Docket no.	20-1800
Citations	596 U.S. ___ (more)
Argument	Oral argument
Holding
1. When the government opens up its property to the public for purely private speech, it does not necessarily constitute government speech. 2. Permitting private religious expression on government property when that property is made a public forum for comparable private expression does not violate the establishment clause. 3. Prohibiting the use of government property for private expression based solely on its religious content while allowing comparable private speech constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination and violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Clarence Thomas · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan · Neil Gorsuch Brett Kavanaugh · Amy Coney Barrett
Case opinions
Majority	Breyer, joined by Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett
Concurrence	Kavanaugh
Concurrence	Alito (in judgment), joined by Thomas, Gorsuch
Concurrence	Gorsuch (in judgment), joined by Thomas
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 596 U.S. ___ (2022), was a United States Supreme Court case related to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case concerned the City of Boston's program that allowed groups to have their flags flown outside Boston City Hall. In a unanimous 9–0 decision, the Court ruled that the city violated a Christian group's free speech rights when it denied their request to raise a Christian flag over City Hall.^[1][2]

This decision received praise from religious liberty organizations as well as the Biden Administration and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).^[3][4]