Harold Shurtleff, et al. v. City of Boston, Massachusetts, et al.
1. Whether the First Circuit's failure to apply this Court's forum doctrine to the First Amendment challenge of a private religious organization that was denied access to briefly display its flag on a city flagpole, pursuant to a city policy expressly designating the flagpole a public forum open to all applicants, with hundreds of approvals and no denials, conflicts with this Court's precedents holding that speech restrictions based on religious viewpoint or content violate the First Amendment or are otherwise subject to strict scrutiny and that the Establishment Clause is not a defense to censorship of private speech in a public forum open to all comers.
2. Whether the First Circuit's classifying as government speech the brief display of a private religious organization's flag on a city flagpole, pursuant to a city policy expressly designating the flagpole a public forum open to all applicants, with hundreds of approvals and no denials, unconstitutionally expands the government speech doctrine, in direct conflict with this Court's decisions in Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017), Walker v. Texas Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., 576 U.S. 200 (2015), and Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U.S. 460 (2009).
3. Whether the First Circuit's finding that the requirement for perfunctory city approval of a proposed brief display of a private religious organization's flag on a city flagpole, pursuant to a city policy expressly designating the flagpole a public forum open to all applicants with hundreds of approvals and no denials, transforms the religious organization's private speech into government speech, conflicts with this Court's precedent in Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017), and Circuit Court precedents in New Hope Family Servs., Inc. v. Poole, 966 F.3d 145 (2d Cir. 2020), Wandering Dago, Inc. v. Destito, 879 F.3d 20 (2d Cir. 2018), Eagle Point Educ. Ass'n/SOBC/OEA v. Jackson Cnty. Sch. Dist. No. 9, 880 F.3d 1097 (9th Cir. 2018), and Robb v. Hungerbeeler, 370 F.3d 735 (8th Cir. 2004).
Whether the First Amendment prohibits the City of Boston from denying a private religious organization's request to briefly display its flag on a city flagpole that the City has designated as a public forum