‘First Amendment liberties’: City censors Christian flag, gets reminded about Supreme Court ruling

Officials in Jersey City, New Jersey, repeatedly have imposed their own censorship scheme on an organization wanting permission, as other groups already have been granted, to fly their flag, a Christian flag, at a city flagpole.

And they’re getting reminded about a Supreme Court precedent on that very topic.

It is Liberty Counsel, which won the Shurtleff v. City of Boston flag flying fight in 2022 at the Supreme Court, that said is now has written to Jersey City officials to remind them about what is, and is not, allowed.

The legal team explained, “In Liberty Counsel’s unanimous 2022 victory in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, a case where Boston officials denied raising the Christian flag in an open forum, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities that open their flagpoles to the public cannot selectively exclude religious viewpoints when they allow other private groups to speak.”

The problem? “Jersey City’s flag program is almost identical to Boston’s” and Liberty Counsel has reminded officials there it must approve the flag-raising request by Children of Faith Parade in order to avoid violating the Constitution.

Liberty Counsel instructed the town it needed a response by Feb. 13.

In August 2025, the Children of Faith Parade organizers applied to raise the Christian flag at city hall for their annual Children of Faith Parade. The parade has consistently included a ceremonial raising of the Christian flag at city hall since 1979. However, this time Jersey City denied the permit under the incorrect notion that raising the flag would violate the Establishment Clause and stated that the decades-long practice of granting it was an “administrative error.”

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The clear message from the U.S. Supreme Court is that government cannot favor one viewpoint and censor another in a public forum. Municipalities like Jersey City can approve a commemorative emblem like the Christian flag without violating the Establishment Clause or it being attributed as government speech. Jersey City officials should approve the Christian flag raising like it has done for decades to prevent irreparable harm to the First Amendment liberties to those sponsoring and attending the Children of Faith Parade.”

The city already had approved, and allowed, the flying of flags for: “The ‘Jersey City LGBTQ+ Pride Festival’; the ‘Independence Day of Pakistan Flag Raising Ceremony’ for the Muslim Council North America and Muslim Federation of New Jersey; the ‘3rd Annual Palestine Flag Raising Ceremony’; the ’70th Anniversary of Independence of Sudan’ flag raising ceremony; and flags for ‘National Hispanic Heritage Month’ and ‘Childhood Cancer Awareness Month,'” Liberty Counsel noted.

It was last August that the city refused permission for the Children of Faith Parade to raise a Christian flag at city hall. The group now is asking for permission for its coming events, in September of this year.

In Shurtleff, the Supreme Court said, 9-0, that Boston’s “lack of meaningful involvement in the selection of flags or the crafting of their messages” classifies the flag raising “as private, not government, speech.”

Jersey City’s refusal would, then, amount to “impermissible viewpoint discrimination.”

The city claimed it previously allowed the flag-raising through “administrative error.”

And Liberty Counsel noted that Boston ended up paying $2.1 million in attorney’s fees and costs to Liberty Counsel for fighting the request to fly the Christian flag on a city flagpole there.