The metropolis should pay greater than $2.1 million to cowl “Christian Flag” activist Hal Shurtleff’s authorized charges after dropping the case that spent a number of years winding its means as much as the U.S. Supreme Court.
Liberty Counsel, the regulation agency that efficiently represented Shurtleff within the case, trumpeted the announcement in an announcement on Tuesday, saying “We are pleased that after five years of litigation and a unanimous victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, we joined with Hal Shurtleff to finally let freedom fly in Boston, the Cradle of Liberty.”
The two sides agreed to the quantity, which extra particularly was $2,125,000, per court docket paperwork.
Earlier this 12 months, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with Shurtleff and his conservative Christian group Camp Constitution, which then-Mayor Marty Walsh rejected from flying its white flag with a crimson cross on a blue sq. on town’s flag pole again in 2017.
Shurtleff and firm sued, alleging that town selecting and selecting flags arbitrarily and rejecting his group’s infringed on its First Amendment rights. After just a few years of the case making its means by means of the federal court docket system, the Supreme Court unanimously sided with Shurtleff earlier this 12 months.
The metropolis, which had paused its typical ceremonial flag-raisings on the third pole exterior of City Hall — subsequent to the U.S. and metropolis banners — since final October, flew the “Christian Flag on Aug. 3 after which redid its coverage to get in keeping with what now-retired Justice Stephen Breyer prescribed within the opinion adopted by SCOTUS.
Now town takes possession of flags and flies them itself by council decision or mayoral decree, making it metropolis speech, which it has extra say over. Previously, it had been letting totally different teams fly their very own flags, so it was the speech of others that town both was permitting or denying — which is the way it bumped into bother.
A spokesman for Mayor Michelle Wu stated it is a matter in fact as Liberty Counsel emerged victorious.
“The City’s Law Department determined this number to be reasonable based on the detailed billing statements provided by Liberty Counsel and through their own analysis of rates charged by attorneys with similar experience in Boston as well as nationally among attorneys practicing in the Supreme Court,” town stated. “Settlement at this time also allows the City to avoid the costs and uncertainty associated with further litigation in this case.”
The metropolis yearly places apart $5 million out of its now $3.99 billion finances to pay for settlements.
The Herald reported final 12 months that town isn’t any stranger to million-dollar payouts, as between 2016 and final November it forked over $18.4 million in additional than 300 settlements and judgments to shut out fits on claims that ranged from stiffing contractors to discrimination fits to an allegation of wrongful loss of life.
In 2021 alone, Boston paid greater than $4.2 million to resolve not less than 42 lawsuits in opposition to town, based on the outcomes of the Herald’s data request.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”