Hal Shurtleff, the director, and co-founder of Camp Constitution lives in Alton, New Hampshire. The 2022 Camp takes place in Plainfield, NH. He is also at the tip of the spear in a Free Speech case before the US Supreme Court with a long list of support, none of it from NH.
Sorry, we support him. Plenty of local grassroots groups are in his corner as well as national groups. The ACLU even wrote a brief in support of Camp Constituion’s case. The list of support is impressive, including twelve states, none of them, New Hampshire.
Amicus brief of Kentucky, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia submitted.
Here is the opening of their brief.
SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT
The government-speech doctrine is both necessary and potentially dangerous. It’s necessary because a government must be able to advocate for and support the ideas and policies that the people elected their officials to implement. But it’s dangerous because expanding the doctrine too far risks creating an end-run around the Free Speech Clause and the protections the clause provides for private speech—protections that apply even when that private speech occurs on government property. And so courts must carefully scrutinize claims of government speech to guard against abuse.This case exemplifies that potential for abuse. The City of Boston opened up one of its flagpoles to the public so that anyone interested could temporarily raise a flag as part of a public demonstration. For over a decade, the City indiscriminately allowed hundreds
of flag-raising events without preventing a single applicant from participating. In doing so, the City imposed no content restrictions or guidelines whatsoever. And the City’s property commissioner did not even once ask to review the flag that would be raised— that is, not until the Petitioners appeared. At that point, the City’s previously public forum transformed into a venue for government speech only. And because the City did not approve of the religious nature of the Petitioners’ flag, it denied their application.
I can’t imagine New Hampshire not being invited to join or not being aware of the case so why is their name conspicuously absent?
Learn more about Camp Constitution on GraniteGrok.com
Why has the State of New Hampshire, an integral part of what Camp Constitution is and does, not stepped up to support them and the First Amendment?
I have reached out to Hal for thoughts or comments and he’s not sure why NH is not involved but said he will call to see if they are going to join the Brief.
We’ll let you know how that goes.
