A crowd of about 200 people gathered Monday night outside of Newton Fire Station 4 to protest a recent decision by Mayor Ruthanne Fuller to take down a Thin Red Line remembrance flag that had been hanging inside for 2½ years, the TAB reports.
The mayor told all department heads last week that only American flags and Newton-created banners could be placed on city-owned buildings.
MGL ch. 264, sec. 5 makes it a crime to display the American Flag with “words, figures, advertisements or designs” intended to attract attention. So, quite apart from city policy, the display of “Thin Blue Line” and “Thin Red Line” flags is arguably prohibited by state law.
While this law would not pass constitutional muster when applied to private citizens, in Garcetti v. Cebalos,, the Supreme Court held that public employees while engaged in their official duties are not protected by the First Amendment freedoms of speech and expression.
In other words, although private citizens (and public employees acting solely in their roles as private citizens) may display these flags, public employees may not while they are on the job.