(Mark E. Johnson, Contributor) A pro-liberty couple in New Hampshire has secured their second free speech victory against the leftist-controlled municipalities that now dominate much of the once-conservative state, due in large part to the influx of liberals from deep blue Massachusetts.
A federal appeals court ruled that Beth and Stephen Scaer’s First Amendment rights were violated when the City of Nashua refused to fly three of their flags on the “Citizen Flag Pole” in City Hall Plaza on ideological grounds.
Two of the Scaers’ flags – the Detrans Awareness flag and the Save Women’s Sports flag – protest the inclusion of so-called trans athletes in school sports that do not align with the athletes’ biological sex.
The third was the Appeal to Heaven flag, a historic American Revolutionary War banner that expresses reliance upon God, particularly in the face of tyranny.
Despite the flag’s 250-year history, woke leftists and their sympathizers in the mainstream media have attempted to associate it with J6, with mixed results.
A federal court initially rejected the Scaers’ argument, saying that access to the city’s flag pole is not protected by First Amendment free speech rights.
The Scaers appealed. Beth Scaer called the court ruling a win for people of all viewpoints:
“[The Appeal to Heaven flag] is a free speech issue. We shouldn’t be censored by the government. That’s right there in the Bill of Rights.”
Nashua’s Citizen Flag Pole was intended for community members to fly a flag to support their cultural heritage or a worthy cause. Appealing to Heaven is apparently not deemed a worthy cause by the powers-that-be in Nashua City Hall. The city eliminated the Citizen Flag Pole shortly after the Scaers filed suit in 2024.
Earlier last year, Beth Scaer and her attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech settled a First Amendment free speech lawsuit against the Kearsarge School District for $33,000.
In that case, Scaer was banned from speaking after referring to a ‘trans’ student who is male but masquerades as a female in order to play girls’ sports as a ‘tall boy.’ The chairperson of the school board deemed Scaer’s choice of words to be ‘derogatory.’
Based in part on reporting by New Hampshire Public Radio.
Mark E. Johnson is the former editor of Headline Health and was a New Hampshire resident for 25 years. He now lives in South Carolina.
