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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 City Hall, a lawsuit all went to the US Supreme Court.
The settlement announced Tuesday by Liberty Counsel will cover attorneys’ fees and other costs related to the legal battle that began in 2017 when a resident of the city of Hal Shurtleff and his Camp Constitution group to hang a flag on one of the three poles in City Hall Plaza to represent the Constitution. Sun.
“We are pleased that after five years of litigation and one victory in the Supreme Court of the United States, we have joined forces with Hal Shurtleff to allow freedom to fly to Boston, the birthplace of salvation, ” said Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver 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, according to Liberty Counsel .
The Supreme Court ruled in May that the city violated Shurtleff’s right to free speech because of his “religious opinion.”
The Christian flag – white, with a red cross on a blue background in the upper left corner – will finally fly for several hours outside City Hall on August 3 as the fans 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 also 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 set a precedent, Liberty Counsel’s Staver said, “including the overturning of the ‘Lemon Trial’ in 1971, which Justice (Antonin) Scalia called a ‘ghoul in a horror movie of the night.’ The case of Shurtleff v. City of Boston hid this evil spirit that has gripped the First Amendment for 51 years.
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