The Borough of Sayreville, New Jersey, set aside a flagpole for private, non-government speech (thereby making the flagpole a limited public forum) and developed a policy saying citizens could submit flags to be flown for limited periods of time. The borough denied a request by a community member to have a Christian flag flown on the community flagpole. The Center reviewed the policy at the community member’s request and noticed the policy claims to deliberately open the space to the public but then includes language that unconstitutionally undercuts that claim. In fact, the policy excludes anything that the Borough of Sayreville, in its “sole discretion” thinks is “inappropriate of offensive” or that “could be perceived to be” supporting prejudice. It also excludes anything that is “associated . . . with any religious event, belief, or cause.” This broad, vague, and completely discretionary language undercuts the possibility of objective and neutral decision making and makes viewpoint discrimination extremely likely. The Center wrote a letter asking the Borough of Sayreville to correct this unconstitutional policy because CLS believes it is important to hold local officials accountable when they have policies that claim to uphold the First Amendment but then contradict it in their very language.
