Judging Freedom - Supreme Court & a Christian Flag - Unanimous Vote

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

The Supreme Court & a Christian Flag #supremecourt #chirstianSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that specializes in personalized learning. With courses available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Good morning, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, March, excuse me, Tuesday, May 5th, 2022. It's about 1035 in the morning. Lots of issues today. Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a rare unanimous opinion involving the flagpoles on top of the

Boston City Hall. Okay, what's the federal issue there? Well, Boston City Hall has a custom of inviting all kinds of groups to fly their flag for a day on one of the three flagpoles at the top of the building. It's a modern, multi-story building. It looks like an office building. It doesn't look like an old-fashioned city hall. But on the top of the building are three flagpoles. It's actually kind of difficult to see the flags because the building is so tall, and if you're at the wrong angle, you can't see what's on the top of it. When a Christian group

wanted to fly a flag with a cross on it, not a crucifix with the image of Jesus Christ, but just a cross, Boston said no, because it will look like we, the city of Boston, are endorsing Christianity by flying this flag. So this group sued the city. They lost in the federal trial court. They lost in the federal appellate court. And yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously as if it were a no-brainer. If you're going to pick and choose, if you're going to allow all sorts of opinions to be manifested by flags flown on the flagpole, you can't discriminate against a religion. So there's two religion clauses in the First Amendment. One of them says, one of them is the Establishment Clause. Congress shall not establish a religion, meaning it won't make a religion the official religion of the country or tax you to pay for religious events. The other is the Free Exercise Clause.

Congress will not interfere with the free exercise of religion. It can't stop you from going to church or temple or synagogue. Both of these came into play here. The Boston City Hall lawyers argued it looks like the city of Boston is endorsing Christianity. And if it did, that would violate the Establishment Clause. Well, it's true that if it did, it would violate the establishment clause. But the Supreme Court says flying the flag is not an endorsement because the city has chosen to fly the flags of has a cross on it, then it shouldn't open up its flag poles on top of its building to a public flag flying forum. Now there's a part of this opinion I don't like, and you've heard me talk about it before, and that is the government's freedom of speech. Again, the court says this is not the government expressing an opinion on Christianity.

That implies that the government has a right to express an opinion on Christianity. In my view, and this is not the law of the land because the court and I are at odds, but I'm not on the court, I'm just me. In my view, the government has no freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a natural right, and it belongs to individuals and not to the government. Who cares what the government's opinion is? But that's just a little footnote in this case. This case stands for the fact that when the government opens up a public forum to all sorts of opinions by allowing all sorts of groups to fly their flag on the government flagpole. They can't discriminate against Christianity by denying only it.

Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. With courses available online 24-7 and monthly start dates, WGU offers maximum flexibility so you can focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu.