Ah, for the old days when nuance meant something

This is the headline in USA Today:

Supreme Court to Boston: Christian flag
must fly on City Hall flagpole

Enough to stoke the religious/secular fires and for that algorithm to boost readership by pushing conflict and extreme positions. Then if you bother to read the story you find that the flag pole in question is a public one for non-profits to promote what they do for the city by flying their flags, and only Christian ones have been excluded. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the First Amendment free speech rights trump separation of church & state when it is not an official government religious statement. Let's emphasize the UNANIMOUS part of that. How many things are going to get an unanimous verdict out of this divided Supreme Court? But the headline twists it into a baiting headline, as if the Supreme Court had declared we are a Christian nation afterall.

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DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

So why are the non Christian flags still banned under this ruling?

Oh right they are not as vocal about it!!!

That's exactly what Christianity is about.

Push, push, push until even all government agencies, even the supreme court, caves in!

We officially now have a theocracy with this rulling.

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

@DeWayfarer What non-Christian flags have been banned?

DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

@dancingtongue this ruling says that Christian flags can be flown, correct?

That by itself makes this ruling Pro religion! Push, push, push!!!

Theocracy!

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

@DeWayfarer No. What the ruling says is that if you set up a public forum, you can't exclude anyone on the basis of you don't like their message, and that includes any religious group. They have free speech rights too. Push, Push, Push would be if they were Okaying the flying of a religious flag over city hall, or some other government forum rather than a public forum.

DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

@dancingtongue no your not getting the point of the freedom of religion.

Free speech never was to over rule religion, it was the other way around!

NO agency should be able to fly a flag! Not the KKK, not the Nazis, not any religious group!

This ruling will allow the KKK and Nazi groups to fly a flags as well!

It's idiotic!

NO group should be able to fly a fly other than a government flag!

BTW you asked switch groups! Those two and a whole lot more!

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

@DeWayfarer KKK, Nazis, and other groups that embrace White Supremacy would not be protected by Free Speech because of the prohibitions on hatred messages. Actually easier to prohibit them on Free Speech than if they attempted to hide behind Religious protection.

I agree that Boston created their problem by having this flag pole without much thought given to defensible rules on how it could be used. I assume it was part of the Boston Strong movement following the Marathon bombing. But as soon as you start letting sports teams, Gay Pride organizations, Black Lives Matter fly their banners, you better have some well-defined guidelines or allow anyone to fly their flag.

DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

@dancingtongue I must disagree! This will make it far easier for them to fly their flags with impunity!

Special if they consider free speech takes presidence over freedom of religion! They'll be clamoring just to do just that everywhere. Including the statues of Lee!

Free speech doesn't overrule freedom of religion. Yet that's exactly what this ruling does!

The laws governing hate speech to not apply to the US Constitution.

Both free speech and freedom of religion are apart of the constitution, hence the ruling in the first place. The supreme court only rules on issues of the constitution.

Hate speech laws were made by Congress yet are not apart of the constitution.

This ruling will knock down the very hate speech laws you are referring to. Because hate speech isn't in the constitution.