JERSEY CITY, NJ – Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to the Jersey City Law Department on behalf of the Children of Faith Parade which was unlawfully denied a permit in August 2025 to raise the Christian flag at city hall while other private groups have been allowed to raise their flags. Now, Children of Faith Parade organizers will again be submitting a permit request to raise the Christian flag for their event on September 12, 2026.

In Liberty Counsel’s unanimous 2022 victory in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, a case where Boston officials denied raising the Christian flag in an open forum, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities that open their flagpoles to the public cannot selectively exclude religious viewpoints when they allow other private groups to speak. Since Jersey City’s flag program is almost identical to Boston’s, Liberty Counsel requests Jersey City approve the flag-raising permit for the 2026 parade to avoid it violating the First Amendment. 

Liberty Counsel sent the letter on January 27, 2026, requesting a response by February 13.

In August 2025, the Children of Faith Parade organizers applied to raise the Christian flag at city hall for their annual Children of Faith Parade. The parade has consistently included a ceremonial raising of the Christian flag at city hall since 1979. However, this time Jersey City denied the permit under the incorrect notion that raising the flag would violate the Establishment Clause and stated that the decades-long practice of granting it was an “administrative error.”

Yet, Jersey City approves many other associations to raise flags with different religious and secular affiliations. For example, the city has previously permitted flags for the “Jersey City LGBTQ+ Pride Festival”; the “Independence Day of Pakistan Flag Raising Ceremony” for the Muslim Council North America and Muslim Federation of New Jersey; the “3rd Annual Palestine Flag Raising Ceremony”; the “70th Anniversary of Independence of Sudan” flag raising ceremony;  and flags for “National Hispanic Heritage Month” and “Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.”

Clearly, Jersey City approves nearly “any celebration proffered by a multitude of private speakers,” and denying the Christian flag for the Children of Faith Parade amounts to unequal treatment and is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, wrote Liberty Counsel.

Like most private flag raisings on public flagpoles, the private entity controls the program, picks the speakers, selects the date, drafts and prints its own program, and submits an annual application just like the Children of Faith Parade has done for decades.

In Shurtleff, the High Court ruled 9-0 that Boston’s “lack of meaningful involvement in the selection of flags or the crafting of their messages” classifies the flag raising “as private, not government, speech.”

Since the High Court determined that raising the Christian flag under Boston’s flag-raising program did not amount to government speech, it follows that Jersey City can raise the Christian flag without any Establishment Clause concerns. Any denial in light of its other flag raisings would be “impermissible viewpoint discrimination” under the First Amendment, wrote Liberty Counsel.

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The clear message from the U.S. Supreme Court is that government cannot favor one viewpoint and censor another in a public forum. Municipalities like Jersey City can approve a commemorative emblem like the Christian flag without violating the Establishment Clause or it being attributed as government speech. Jersey City officials should approve the Christian flag raising like it has done for decades to prevent irreparable harm to the First Amendment liberties to those sponsoring and attending the Children of Faith Parade.”

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