Satanic Temple requests flag raising at Boston City Hall after Supreme Court rules city violated free speech rights in refusing to fly Christian flag

The Satanic Temple is hoping to raise one of its flags in front of Boston City Hall after the Supreme Court ruled Boston violated free speech rights when it refused to fly a Christian’s groups flag.

“Religious Liberty is a bedrock principle in a democracy, and Religious Liberty is dependent upon government viewpoint neutrality,” Lucien Greaves, cofounder of The Satanic Temple said in a statement. “When public officials are allowed to preference certain religious viewpoints over others, we do not have Religious Liberty, we have theocracy.”

Boston refused to let Camp Constitution, a New Hampshire-based Christian organization, hoist its flag in front of the third flag pole at City Hall Plaza as part of a ceremony in 2017, court documents stated.

The commissioner of Boston’s Property Management Department said that flying a religious flag at City Hall could violate the city’s Establishment Clause — which prohibits a government from establishing an official religion.

But Boston has allowed different flags in the past.

Between 2005 and 2017, Boston approved the raising of around 50 unique flags for 284 such ceremonies, court documents said. The majority of the flags were of other countries, however, some were associated with groups or causes, such as the Pride Flag.

Camp Constitution sued the city, claiming that Boston’s refusal to let them raise their flag violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause.

In Monday’s ruling, the supreme court said Boston could not discriminate on the basis of the religious group’s viewpoint without violating the Constitution.

“We conclude that, on balance, Boston did not make the raising and flying of private groups’ flags a form of government speech,” the supreme court said. “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.’”

Now, the Satanic Temple wants to raise its own flag — although they aren’t sure which one.

“We have several flag designs that have already been in production, and have not yet discussed which might be best for this specific purpose,” Greaves said.

The Supreme Court ruled that Boston violated First Amendment rights by refusing to fly Christian flag at City Hall Plaza. Here is The Satanic Temple's reply: pic.twitter.com/rHtZddpHqC — Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) May 3, 2022

The group opened its first official headquarters in Salem in 2016.

They don’t view Satan as an evil figure, but as one who dared question authority. The group mostly advocates for the separation of church and state and is known for attempting to get its one-ton goat-headed idol statue put next to the 10 Commandments monument on public grounds.

The group recently said in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration that abortion is part of a religious ritual, and preventing access to treatments that can terminate pregnancies violates religious freedom.

The announcement was in response to Texas’ abortion law, which went into effect Sept. 1, outlaws abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. On Monday, a report from Politico stated that the nation’s highest court voted to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide.

“I hope that with the leaked draft of the Supreme Court majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, more people will wake up to the fact that these efforts by The Satanic Temple are actually high stakes frontline battles to preserve the basic rights of all, and not merely clever ‘pranks’ to expose already well-known hypocrisies,” Greaves said.