The Freedom From Religion Foundation is protesting the city of Hartford, Conn.’s decision to fly an explicitly religious flag at City Hall over the Easter weekend. The flag raising was accompanied by an Easter worship ceremony.
One pastor recited prayer while the flag was being raised. According to city officials, the flag recognizes “the contributions to the Christian community.” FFRF is urging the city to refrain from flying the flag in the future.
“To respect the federal and state constitutional concerns, the flag should be taken down and not flown again as the government’s message,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi writes to the Hartford City Council.
The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause requires governmental neutrality toward religion, FFRF emphasizes. By flying the religious flag, Hartford runs headfirst into this neutrality principle while also violating religious neutrality. Hartford expressly labels the Christian flag as government speech. Even if residents had input on which flag to hoist, nothing would have changed, since the government would still be speaking. Flag flying is historically government speech; objective observers would believe that Hartford is speaking when selecting which flags to fly.
FFRF asserts that in order to respect the rights of both minority religious residents and nonreligious residents, Hartford must take down the flag and desist from flying it again.
“This is an unconstitutional display of religious favoritism that sends a message stating Christians are the preferred residents of Hartford,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “Residents of the city deserve better than to be told that they need to conform to one religion in order to be part of the community.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members, including more than 500 members in Connecticut. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
