Today Marks the 4th Anniversary of Our 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court Victory “Shurtleff v Boston”
Today, May 2, 2026 marks the 4th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 9-0 “Shurtleff v Boston” decision which was a victory for religious liberty and free speech. Since the decision, dozens if not hundreds of towns and cities were forced to change or adopt a flag policy. Many towns and cities decided to end flying anything but the U.S. and state flags while others allowed flying the Christian flag. But more importantly, it helped repeal the 1971 “Lemon v. Kurtzman” decision.
The U.S. Supreme Court Rules 9-0 in Camp Constitution’s Christian Flag Lawsuit
I received a call today at 10:30 AM from Roger Gannam, one of the attorneys at Liberty Counsel who has been involved with our lawsuit from the very beginning. He informed me that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in our favor 9-0. Since then, I have conducted a batch of media interviews. First, I want to give God the Glory. His Hand was in this case from the beginning. I want to thank the folks at Liberty Counsel that did an incredible job, and all of the people who support and make Camp Constitution possible. The main mission of Camp Constitution is to teach people the U.S. Constitution. I think that this issue has given the nation a good lesson on the 1st Amendment. Below is the news release from Liberty Counsel announcing the decision.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the City of Boston violated the Constitution by censoring a private flag in a public forum open to “all applicants” merely because the application referred to it as a “Christian flag.” The High Court stated that it is not government speech, and because the government admitted it censored the flag because it was referred to as a Christian flag on the application, the censorship was viewpoint discrimination, and there is no Establishment Clause defense.
Justice Breyer wrote the opinion in which Chief Justice Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, and Barrett joined. Justice Kavanaugh filed a concurring opinion. Justice Alito filed a concurring opinion in the judgment, in which Thomas and Gorsuch joined. Justice Gorsuch filed a concurring opinion in the judgment, in which Thomas joined.
In Shurtleff v. City of Boston, Liberty Counsel represents Boston resident Hal Shurtleff and his Christian civic organization, Camp Constitution. Shurtleff and Camp Constitution first asked the city in 2017 for a permit to raise the Christian flag on Boston City Hall flagpoles to commemorate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day (September 17) and the civic and cultural contributions of the Christian community to the City of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, religious tolerance, the Rule of Law and the U.S. Constitution.
“We do not settle this dispute by counting noses—or, rather, counting flags. That is so for several reasons. For one thing, Boston told the public that it sought ‘to accommodate all applicants’ who wished to hold events at Boston’s ‘public forums,’ including on City Hall Plaza. App. to Pet. for Cert. 137a. The application form asked only for contact information and a brief description of the event, with proposed dates and times. The city employee who handled applications testified by deposition that he had previously ‘never requested to review a flag or requested changes to a flag in connection with approval’; nor did he even see flags before the events. Id., at 150a. The city’s practice was to approve flag raisings, without exception. It has no record of denying a request until Shurtleff’s. Boston acknowledges it ‘hadn’t spent a lot of time really thinking about’ its flag-raising practices until this case. App. in No. 20–1158 (CA1), at 140 (Rooney deposition). True to its word, the city had nothing—no written policies or clear in[1]ternal guidance—about what flags groups could fly and what those flags would communicate,’” the Court wrote.
In addition, the Court wrote, “Here, Boston concedes that it denied Shurtleff ’s request solely because the Christian flag he asked to raise “promot[ed] a specific religion.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 155a (quoting Rooney deposition). Under our precedents, and in view of our government-speech holding here, that refusal discriminated based on religious viewpoint and violated the Free Speech Clause” (emphasis added).
There are three flagpoles outside City Hall that fly the U.S., Massachusetts and Boston flags, plus a fourth flag on Congress Street, which runs parallel to City Hall. For 12 years from 2005-2017, Boston approved 284 flag-raisings by private organizations with no denials on the flagpoles that it designated as a “public forum.” Had the flag been referred to as anything but Christian, the city would have approved it. The flag itself was not the problem; it was the word “Christian” describing it in the application that was the issue. The year before Camp Constitution’s application (2016-2017), Boston approved 39 private flag-raising events, which averaged three per month. In 2018, Boston approved 50 private flag raising events, averaging nearly one per week. One included a flag of a private credit union.
The Justices commented on the longstanding test known as the “Lemon Test” which has been used to determine if a law violates the First Amendment. Its name comes from Lemon v. Kurtzman, in which the Court ruled that a Rhode Island law that paid some of the salary of some parochial school teachers was unconstitutional. This test has proven to be unworkable and has led to inconsistent and contradictory decisions on the constitutionality of 10 Commandment monuments and cross monuments like the “Peace Cross.”
Justice Gorsuch, joined in a concurrence with Justice Thomas, stated, “It’s time to let Lemon lie in its grave.”
Justice Gorsuch continued, “How did the city get it so wrong? To be fair, at least some of the blame belongs here and traces back to Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U. S. 602 (1971). Issued during a “‘bygone era’” when this Court took a more freewheeling approach to interpreting legal texts, Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, 588 U. S. ___, ___ (2019) (slip op., at 8), Lemon sought to devise a one-size-fits-all test for resolving Establishment Clause disputes. That project bypassed any inquiry into the Clause’s original meaning. It ignored longstanding precedents. And instead of bringing clarity to the area, Lemon produced only chaos. In time, this Court came to recognize these problems, abandoned Lemon, and returned to a more humble jurisprudence centered on the Constitution’s original meaning. Yet in this case, the city chose to follow Lemon anyway. It proved a costly decision, and Boston’s travails supply a cautionary tale for other localities and lower courts. The only sure thing Lemon yielded was new business for lawyers and judges.”
“Ultimately, Lemon devolved into a kind of children’s game. Start with a Christmas scene, a menorah, or a flag. Then pick your own “reasonable observer” avatar. In this game, the avatar’s default settings are lazy, uninformed about history, and not particularly inclined to legal research. His default mood is irritable. To play, expose your avatar to the display and ask for his reaction. How does he feel about it? Mind you: Don’t ask him whether the proposed display actually amounts to an establishment of religion. Just ask him if he feels it “endorses” religion. If so, game over,” wrote Gorsuch.
In his concurrence, Justice Kavanaugh wrote, “A government violates the Constitution when (as here) it excludes religious persons, organizations, or speech because of religion from public programs, benefits, facilities, and the like.”
In his concurrence, Justice Alito wrote, “I agree with the Court’s conclusion that Boston (hereafter City) violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech when it rejected Camp Constitution’s application to fly what it characterized as a “Christian flag.” But I cannot go along with the Court’s decision to analyze this case in terms of the triad of factors—history, the public’s perception of who is speaking, and the extent to which the government has exercised control over speech—that our decision in Walker v. Texas Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., 576 U. S. 200 (2015), derived from Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U. S. 460 (2009). See ante, at 6–12. As the Court now recognizes, those cases did not set forth a test that always and everywhere applies when the government claims that its actions are immune to First Amendment challenge under the government-speech doctrine. And treating those factors as a test obscures the real question in government-speech cases: whether the government is speaking instead of regulating private expression.”
Justice Alito continued, “But courts must be very careful when a government claims that speech by one or more private speakers is actually government speech. When that occurs, it can be difficult to tell whether the government is using the doctrine “as a subterfuge for favoring certain private speakers over others based on viewpoint,” id., at 473, and the government-speech doctrine becomes “susceptible to dangerous misuse….To prevent the government-speech doctrine from being used as a cover for censorship, courts must focus on the identity of the speaker. The ultimate question is whether the government is actually expressing its own views or the real speaker is a private party and the government is surreptitiously engaged in the “regulation of private speech.” Summum, 555 U. S., at 467…. Consider first “the extent to which the government has actively shaped or controlled the expression.” Ante, at 6. Government control over speech is relevant to speaker identity in that speech by a private individual or group cannot constitute government speech if the government does not attempt to control the message. But control is also an essential element of censorship.”
Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court strikes a victory for private speech in a public forum. This case is so much more significant than a flag. Boston openly discriminated against viewpoints it disfavored when it opened the flagpoles to all applicants and then excluded Christian viewpoints. Government cannot censor religious viewpoints under the guise of government speech.”
TIMELINE
- SEPT 2017 Liberty Counsel sends Boston demand letter following flag application denial.
- JULY 2018 Original suit filed in district court.
- AUG 2018 Court denies preliminary injunction.
- JUNE 2019 First Circuit affirms the denial.
- JULY 2019 LC files motion for summary judgment in district court.
- FEB 2020 District court denies LC summary judgment and grants city’s summary judgment.
- JAN 2021 First Circuit affirms summary judgment for city.
- JUNE 2021 LC files writ of certiorari at SCOTUS.
- SEPT 2021 SCOTUS takes the case.
- JAN 18, 2022 Oral argument set at SCOTUS.
BRIEFS OF LIBERTY COUNSEL AND CITY OF BOSTON
Reply Brief For The Petitioners
Petition for Certiorari
Opposition to Petition for Certiorari
Reply Brief in Support of Petition for Certiorari
Brief for Petitioners Camp Constitution
Brief for Respondent City of Boston
Reply Brief of Petitioners Camp Constitution
AMICUS BRIEFS:
In Support of Liberty Counsel
Brief-Amicus-(ACLU and ACLU of Massachusetts).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Advancing-American-Freedom-et al).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(American-Cornerstone-Institute).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(American-Legion).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Becket Fund for Religious Liberty).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Bronx-Household-of-Faith).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Catholicvote-org).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(CPCF, et al.).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Foundation-for-Moral-Law).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Multi-States).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(National Legal Foundation, et al.).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Notre Dame L. Sch. Rel. Lib. Initiative).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Pacific Legal Foundation).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Protect-the-First-Foundation).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Rutherford-Institute).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Thomas-More).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(United States).pdf
In Support of City of Boston
Brief-Amicus-(Anti-Defamation League).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(FFRF).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Jewish Alliance for Law, et al).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Local Governments).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(Multi States).pdf
Brief-Amicus-(National Council of Churches, et al.).pdf
READ MORE:
SCOTUS Rules 9-0 in Favor of Christian Flag Case
U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Religious Viewpoint Discrimination
Supreme Court Heard Religious Viewpoint Case Today
Religious Viewpoint Case Goes to SCOTUS Tomorrow
Events Surrounding Shurtleff v. City of Boston SCOTUS Oral Argument
Religious Viewpoint Case Will Affect Everyone
LC Files Reply Brief at SCOTUS in Religious Viewpoint Case
Religious Viewpoint Case at SCOTUS Will Set National Precedent
USA and 12 States Support LC in Free Speech Case
Boston’s Christian Flag Debate Heading to US Supreme Court
Liberty Counsel Files Opening Brief at SCOTUS in Religious Viewpoint Case
U.S. Supreme Court Takes Christian Flag Case
Next Step for Christian Flag: U.S. Supreme Court
Christian Flag in Boston Before Court of Appeals
Boston Censorship Continues
Christian Flag Goes Back to Court
Boston Should Fly Christian Flag
Boston Discriminates Against Christian Flag
Stop Censorship of Christian Flag
Boston Sued for Censoring Christian Flag
Group sues Boston for banning Christian flag, approving 284 others
Boston Sued For Booting Christian Flag, While Allowing Islamic Symbols
Boston Sued for Banning Christian Flag, Allowing 284 Others
284 flags including China’s OK in Boston, but not Christian banner
Boston Sued for Banning Christian Flag, Allowing 284 Others
Banned in Boston — the Christian Flag
Stop Censorship of Christian Flag
Fly the ‘Christian’ flag? Sorry, no can do
The Point: Boston Bars the Christian Flag
Boston’s Censorship of the Christian Flag – Mat Staver – Episode 31
Explore the truth behind the blatant government censorship of the Christian faith, and learn what you can do to protect your religious freedom! – Originally premiered Feb 27, 2022 on GoodLife45 – visit https://www.tv45.org
Standing Up for Judeo-Christian Values – Hal Shurtleff – Episode 29
As Liberty Counsel prepares to defend a religious viewpoint censorship case before the U.S. Supreme Court, it all started with the Christian flag. Hal Shurtleff of Camp Constitution joins Mat Staver to explain more on this episode of Freedom Alive.™ – Originally premiered Dec 12, 2021 on GoodLife45 – visit https://www.tv45.org
The Weekly Sam: From Rhodes Scholars to Alinsky Disciples By Samuel L. Blumenfeld
In the past it seemed that the best way to become President was through several
well-established routes: by climbing the power ladder in either of the two political
parties, by having gone to Harvard or Yale, by having had a Rhodes Scholarship to
Oxford, or by belonging to the secret Skull & Bones Society at Yale.
Nixon clawed his way up the ladder of the Republican Party. Born in California in
1913, he got his law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1937. In 1946 he
was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican. He gained fame among
Republicans by putting Soviet agent Alger Hiss in jail. After many ups and downs he
finally became the 37th President in 1968.
Jimmy Carter, our 39th President, was born in Plains, Georgia in 1924. He graduated from
Plains High School and then attended Georgia Southwestern College. He served as a
Georgia State Senator and then Governor. As a liberal statist he created two new
departments when he became President, the Department of Education and the Department
of Energy. He seems to have been chosen by the powers that be in the Democrat Party
to run for President. In 1976 he won the race against Gerald Ford. His Presidency is
considered a disaster by conservatives. Yet, he remains something of a fluke in the
annals of American presidential politics.
John F. Kennedy was born in Massachusetts in 1917, attended private prep schools,
studied at the Fabian Society’s London School of Economics in 1935, then entered
Harvard in 1936. He graduated cum laude in 1940. After the war, he got into politics and
was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1946. In 1952 he became a
Senator. His father had always wanted one of his sons to become President. The eldest
was killed in the war, but John, No. 2, was available. With the help of the family
fortune, Jack finally became the 35th President in 1960 in a very close race against
Richard Nixon. After Kennedy, came Lyndon Johnson, who also clawed his way up the
political ladder of the Democrat Party, and became President after JFK’s assassination.
George H. W. Bush, born in Massachusetts in 1924, came from a family of Wall Street
investment bankers. His father was not only a Yale Bonesman, but also became a U.S.
Senator. George followed his father’s footsteps to Yale and the Skull and Bones Society.
After graduation he got into the oil business in Texas. There, as a “moderate” Republican
he was urged to run against a candidate in the primary who also happened to be a
member of the “extremist” John Birch Society. He won the primary, but lost the election
to a Democrat.
In 1966 he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Although generally
considered a Rockefeller Republican, he tended to vote conservative. In an effort to
become a Senator, he ran against a conservative in the primary. He won that battle but
in 1970 lost the election to a Democrat. When Gerald Ford became President after
Nixon’s resignation, he appointed Bush to be Liaison Officer with Communist China
where he spent 14 months. In 1976, Ford appointed Bush head of the CIA.
In 1979, Bush decided to run for the Presidency. He vied with Ronald Reagan for the
nomination but lost. Reagan then asked Bush to become his running mate. In 1989, after
serving two terms as Vice President, Bush finally made it to the White House. He was
expected to continue Reagan’s conservative policies, especially on taxes. But when he
reneged on his pledge not to raise taxes, he went down to defeat in1992 against Bill
Clinton.
Ronald Reagan, our 40th President, was born in Illinois in 1911. He graduated from
Eureka College in 1932. He became a famous movie star and then a spokesman for the
free enterprise system. He entered elective politics in the 1960s, becoming Governor of
California in 1967. A conservative Republican, he turned out to be one of the most
popular Presidents in our history. He combined charisma and a vision of America that
thrilled the hearts of most conservatives. To Reagan, America was “the city on the hill.“
His strong anti-communism also endeared him to conservatives.
Clinton, born in 1946 of lower middle class folk in Arkansas, decided as a teenager to get
into elective politics. He graduated from Hot Springs High School. Then, with the aid of
scholarships, was able to attend the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University
in Washington. His professor, Carroll Quigley, who had access to the private papers of
the Council on Foreign Relations and the Rhodes Round Table, helped him get a Rhodes
Scholarship at Oxford. After Oxford, he entered Yale Law School, got his degree in
1973, met Hillary, a fellow student and Saul Alinsky disciple, whom he later married.
From there Clinton returned to Arkansas where he worked his way up the Democratic
Party, became Governor in 1978, and finally made it to the White House in 1992. As a
Rhodie, he met many other ambitious politicos at Oxford, who later became members of
his team during his Presidency.
George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, was born in Connecticut in1946. He
followed his father and grandfather’s footsteps to Yale, where he became a member of
the Skull and Bones Society. After graduation in 1968, he attended Harvard Business
School and got his MBA degree in 1975. He then worked in the Texas oil business, and
finally entered elective politics in 1977. He ran for the House of Representatives, but lost.
In 1994 he became Governor of Texas. He was elected President in 2000 after a hotly
contested race against Al Gore.
So far we have seen how individuals can rise to the Presidency via traditional channels of
Republican and Democratic political activity. But now we have a new source of potential
candidates for the White House: Saul Alinsky’s Chicago school for Marxist
Revolutionaries. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are Alinsky disciples, and
they have tried to impose Marxism over the American people. Hillary first tried to do it
when her husband was elected President, giving her the opportunity to organize an effort
to impose socialized medicine on the nation. Thanks to Republican opposition, that
effort failed.
But it was Barack Obama, on being elected President, who went to work immediately to
impose socialism on the American people. Of course, he had the help of Nancy Pelosi,
the most leftist Speaker of the House to hold that position, and Senator Harry Reid of
Nevada, whose leftism seems to have been adopted as a means of gaining support of the
leftist unions.
Pelosi is a San Francisco liberal who really doesn’t know the difference between
socialism and capitalism. She is not a thinker. She came from an Italian Catholic
family that was very active in Baltimore Democrat politics. She attended Catholic
schools and probably absorbed enough Liberation Theology to solidify her liberal beliefs,
which became the basis of her left-wing politics. She is the least philosophical woman
ever to be elected to Congress. When she was asked if the National Healthcare Bill was
constitutional, her answer was: “Are you serious?” Which means that she has no
conception of what a Constitutional Republic is and probably doesn’t want to know.
Harry Reid was born to a very poor family in Searchlight, Nevada. After graduating
high school he attended Southern Utah University and graduated from Utah State
University. From there he went to George Washington University Law School.
He returned to Nevada with a law degree and first served as Henderson city attorney. He
was then elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1968. He then ran for Lieutenant Governor
of Nevada, but lost. He also lost a bid to become mayor of Las Vegas. But due to his
very strong political connections he was able to become chairman of the Nevada Gaming
Commission in 1977. When a gambling entrepreneur tried to bribe Reid, he turned the
individual in to the FBI. That helped improve his political qualifications. The result is
that he was elected to Congress in 1982. In 1986 he ran for the Senate and won.
In reviewing Reid’s political career, which consisted of party loyalty above all else, one
can see why he was able to beat his opponent in the last election. His connections in
Nevada guaranteed his reelection. He is clearly not a Marxist. He’s a Democrat, and
the Democratic Party has become the chosen vehicle for the Marxists’ to gain political
power in Washington. He is a party loyalist above all else. For him the political game
has nothing to do with the Constitution or the principles of the Founding Fathers. So he
can loyally serve a Marxist President without any qualms.
And so neither Nancy Pelosi nor Harry Reid are conscious Marxists. They probably
know very little if anything about Saul Alinsky. And since many of the precepts of Karl
Marx’s Communist Manifesto have already been adopted by the United States under the
guise of liberalism, how can anyone call it socialism?
One good thing the Tea Party movement has done is bring to the new Congress men and
women who actually believe in the Constitution and the principles of the Founding
Fathers. They are not Marxists. They are not socialists. They are Constitutionalists or
Americanists. And they know that Marxists and Socialists move about Washington under
the label of liberalism. So the Tea Partiers are more aware of the semantic trickery of
the left and will not be fooled by it any longer. They are also the harbingers of the
conservative counter-revolution that is so badly needed in Washington. That is why
2011 will prove to be one of the most decisive years in American history.
(This article is from the Sam Blumenfeld Archives:
http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm
The Blumenfeld Archives
Happy Birthday Illuminati Founded May 1, 1776 Bavaria, Germany
There have been several books published in the early days of the Illuminati’s existence including Proofs of a Conspiracy, Memoirs of Jacobinism and Proof of the Illuminati. Rev. G.W. Snyder sent a copy of Proofs of a Conspiracy to George Washington who replied:
“It was not my intention to doubt that the Doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more fully satisfied of this fact than I am.”
Several years ago, while our annual family camp was in session, we took a field trip to the Rindge, NH Historical Society where I found copies of Proof of the Illuminati for sale. When I asked Karla MacLeod, the museum’s president, why this book was at the museum, she informed me that the author Rev. Seth Payson was the pastor of the Congregational Church. He wrote the book in 1802, and it was the basis for his successful campaign for state senate. Camp Constitution Press reprinted the book. A free PDF version is available here: https://campconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Proof-of-the-Illuminati-by-Rev-Seth-Payson.pdf
A paperback version is available from our on-line shop: https://campconstitution.net/shop/
Meeting the Needs of the Self-Loathing Community
In a free market, needs and wants (demands) are met by those willing to take a risk. In some cases, risk takers create needs or wants. There are numerous examples of creating a want and then supplying it. Two come to mind. Back in 1975, Gary Dahl invented the Pet Rock. The fad lasted long to make Mr. Dahl a millionaire. In the 1970s, Martha Nelson Thomas hand made what she called “Baby Dolls” complete with birth certificates and adoption papers. Xavier Roberts acquitted the rights, and in 1982, rebranded them “Cabbage Patch Kids” and for a few years, people would stand in long lines at stores awaiting the opportunity to purchase these ugly dolls with hard heads and soft bodies in toy stores around the country. In some cases, fights broke out over these hideous things.
Well, after learning of Billie Eilish’s statement at the recent Grammy Awards where she said that there are no illegals on stolen land and constantly being reminded by Black History Month celebrants that enslaved blacks built our nation, I see a need and will meet a need. I will start a clearing house for self-loathing whites who have an urgent need to transfer their real estate and possessions to “Indigenous” people and Black Americans. I have a few names in mind for this unique business model: White Assuagement Transfers -WAT-and Self-Loathing Acquisition Redistribution- SLAR. For my services, the company will charge a meager ten percent of the value of the things given away by my self-loathing white clients. This would include payroll and overhead.
My new business will lead to the creation of several cottage industries including selling prefabricated cardboard mini homes, and virtual signaling yard signs that read: “Hate Has No Home Here And Neither Do I.”
I have to find worthy recipients of the real estate and other items, but I couldn’t distribute these things to organizations that do not share my worldview. So, here is a list of organizations and individuals that would be the beneficiaries of the ill-gotten gains from my self-loathing clients.
Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) https://www.nagaeducation.org/
This worthy non-profit would receive all of the “stolen land” from my self-loathing clients. NAGA works to educate people about the history of American Indians and strongly oppose changing the names of sports teams that are named in honor of Indians. From their Website:
NAGA utilizes various media channels, especially social media, to educate the public about the positive ways educational institutions and sports teams can and are using their platforms to educate about Native Americans. Many Americans do not even realize that American Indians are still around. NAGA is committed to keeping Native identity at the forefront of mainstream America. Educational institutions and sports teams play an important role in the preservation and promotion of American Indian legacy.
And to the descendants of slaves:
National Black Home Educators https://www.nbhe.net/
Government schools have miserably failed our nations’ children, especially those in the Black community. National Black Home Educators offers Black parents viable alternatives to those failing schools.
From their website:
The goal of this organization is ultimately to see strong families with healthy parent relationships. We believe that every child deserves a world class education. This organization believes that these goals can be achieved through parent directed education. We are bringing the rich heritage of the Black experience to the homeschooling community worldwide.
Historia Revelata https://www.patreon.com/cw/chadojackson
This organization was founded by Chad O. Jackson, a native Texan, master plumber with a successful business, and homeschooler. From their website:
As an independent documentarian, founder of Historia Revelata and Executive Director of the Historia Revelata Foundation, Chad O. Jackson is a subject matter expert when it comes to showing his audiences how America’s social constructs sausage is made… and he’s not afraid of slaughtering a few sacred cows in the process. His film work isn’t just about looking back at history and stating the obvious. It’s about exposing the little-known connective tissue between yesterday’s ill-gotten lessons and today’s sobering realities, chronicling how the past’s echoes either sound the alarms to course correct or beckon a harkening back to this country’s long forgotten (or never discovered) buried treasure.
A Chad O. Jackson film is a critical thought call-to-action for his audiences to question absolutely everything – especially what is universally accepted – and to consider that, for any question to be answered truthfully, it must be filtered through the inerrant truth: The Bible.
(Rev. Steve Craft and Vince Ellison)
Vince Ellison https://www.vincespeakstruth.com/
Vince is the author of several books including 25 Lies: Exposing Democrat’s Most Dangerous, Seductive, Damnable, Destructive Lies and How to Refute Them and The Iron Triangle: Inside the Liberal Democrat Plan to Use Race to Divide Christians and America in their Quest for Power and How We Can Defeat Them. He is the producer of the documentary Will You Go to Hell for Me and hosts “The Vince Ellison Show” on YouTube.
I reject the Marxist narrative that we live on stolen land and, while Black Americans made contributions to the building of our nation, they didn’t do it alone. So, prior to accepting the real estate and possessions from my self-loathing clients, I would encourage them to view the documentaries The Real History of the American Indians and The Real History of Slavery by Matt Walsh Maybe, these two documentaries can undo years of government and private prep school indoctrination that has been churning out people who both hate themselves and the greatest nation in the world and my business will be as short lived as the Pet Rock and Cabbage Patch Kids.
Final Reminder for Camp Constitution’s “Early Bird” Registration Which Ends This Friday May 1
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Van Fund Raising Update
We launched a fund-raising campaign to replace our camp van in early March. Our van had 180,000 miles and needed a transmission and other repairs. Our trusted mechanic advised us that it wasn’t worth repairing. We have to purchase a van by the end of this month.
So far, we have raised $6,585. Many thanks to those who have already donated. While we have some “rainy day” funds to make a purchase, it would seriously deplete our reserve funds.
Those who are able to help may donation via our PayPal accounted accessed from our website’s homepage: https://campconstitution.net/ or via check payable to Camp Constitution and mail to us at 146 Powder Mill Rd. Alton, NH 03809
Those who own a business or manage non-profits can become official Camp Constitution sponsors and be listed as a Camp Sponsor for donations of $100. or more: Camp Sponsors | campconstitution.net
Blessings,
Hal Shurtleff, Director
Camp Constitution
Alton, NH
(A picture of our van in 2019 after having Brice Socha did the signage.)
Christian Persecution Presentations and Banner Displays in Aroostook County, Maine
Last week from Wednesday April 8th to Saturday April 11, Camp Constitution was hosted by five churches where we conducted presentations on the topic of Christian Persecution Around the World and in the U.S. We started at the Union Baptist Church in Littleton on Wednesday evening then Thursday morning at the Living Waters Apostolic Church. We then had two presentations at the Caribou United Baptist Church-an afternoon presentation to a prayer group and an evening presentation to the church’s youth group where we had to make the presentation age appropriate. During the question-and-answer session, a girl age 11-12 asked us why some people go to different churches. While it was not a question that was germane to the topic, we think we answered it to her satisfaction. Our Friday Noon event, in Madawaska was set up with less than 12 hours’ notice. Our Saturday morning presentation was hosted at the Global Methodist Church in Presque Isle. A link to a video of that presentation is below.
After our Saturday morning event, we had the opportunity to speak at the Aroostook County Republican Committee about the dangers of an Article V Convention. There were a number of state reps and state senators on hand-none of whom had any objections to our position. We thank all who helped to make this trip a success. A special thanks to Bob Roy, Pastor Chris Cain, Pastor Ron Doughty, Pastor Sid Kear, Jill McCarthy Kalata, Pastor Choi, and Chris Lydon. We also want to thank William Brown who donated the banners from Save The Persecuted Christians used in the presentations.
The Weekly Sam: Marva Collins and Sam Blumenfeld and the movie “Marva Collins’ Way”
Sam Blumenfeld and Marva Collins were friends. Below is a letter Marva sent to Sam back in 1983. Sam visited Marva’s school where she used intensive phonics to teach her students to read
This is Sam’s review of Marva’s book which is based on the movie:Book Review of Marva Collins Way by Sam Blumenfeld
(This is a review from Sam’s June 1987 newsletter titled “Eugenics and the Making of a Black Underclass.”) http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/1987/BEL%2002-06%20198706.pdf
Marva Collins is the black educator who spent 16 years teaching in the Chicago public school system before deciding that she had had enough. “The longer I taught in the public school system, the more I came to think that schools were concerned with everything but teaching,” she says. In September 1975 Marva began a private school of her own with four students and one classroom.
Today,. her Westside Preparatory School is considered the nation’s most successful private alternative in a black community. Its success has been widely acclaimed by the media but not by the public educators of Chicago who continue to do what they do best: miseducate. I have known Marva for many years through my association with the Reading Reform Foundation. She has been one of America’s strongest and most vocal advocates of intensive phonics in the teaching of reading. Because of this she is not very popular among reading instruction professionals and specialists who use look-say basal programs.
Marva Collins’ Way is an important book for anyone who wants to understand what one woman is doing to pull black children out of the underclass. Mrs. Collins writes: “I prepared my children for Iife.” And I bluntly told them to face that fact that no one was going to hire them for a job if they walked into an office wearing picks in their hair, if they slinked into a room as though their hips were broken, or if the boys wore earrings or high-heeled shoes or wide-brimmed hats. I teach them to become universal citizens of the world. encourage people,
She writes “I did not teach black history as a subject apart from American history, emphasize black heroes over white, or preach black consciousness rather than a sense of the larger society. My refusal to do so was a sore spot between me and some members of the black community. “I’d say to my students, ‘Is there anyone in here who doesn’t know he’s black?’ And the children would shake their heads and laugh. Then I’d ask, ‘Is there any black child in here who plans on turning white?’ Again there would be laughter. ‘In that case let’s get on with the business of learning,’ I’m opposed to teaching black English because it separates black children from the rest of society; it also implies they are too inferior to learn standard language usage.” I was convinced black English was another barrier confining my students to the ghetto, “Instead of teaching black pride I taught my children self-pride.
All I wanted was for them to accept themselves. I pointed out that in many ways the ghetto is a state of mind. If you have a positive attitude about yourself, then no one can put you down for who you are or where you live.” This book will also teach you more about education then you’ll ever learn in a teachers college. It goes against everything John Dewey, Cattell, Thorn dike, Gates, Judd, Gray, and the others stood for. It’s what every teacher and student teacher in America should read. But let’ s face it. How many teachers actually read anymore books for pleasure.
Lamb of God sacrificed on Passover; In tomb on Feast of Unleavened Bread; Resurrected on Feast of First Fruits – American Minute with Bill Federer
Christianity is the largest religion in the world, around a third of the Earth’s population, and since Easter is the most important day to Christians, this day could possibly be considered the most important day in the world!
The word “Easter” appears only once in the King James Bible, Acts 12:4. In every other place and in every other Bible translation the word used is “Passover.”
President Ronald Reagan stated April 2, 1983:
“This week Jewish families … have been celebrating Passover … Its observance reminds all of … the battle against oppression waged by the Jews since ancient times …
And Christians have been commemorating the last momentous days leading to the crucifixion of Jesus 1,950 years ago. Tomorrow, as morning spreads around the planet, we’ll celebrate the triumph of life over death, the Resurrection of Jesus.”
Passover is the first of the seven major Feasts of Lord, as given to Israel in Leviticus 25. The feasts are in three groups:
In the Spring are the Feast of Passover; the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and the Feast of First Fruits.
Fifty days later is the Feast of Pentecost at the beginning of the harvest. “Pentecost” means 50th.
At the end of the summer harvest are celebrated the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Let us examine these feasts.
Passover was first observed around 1,400 BC, the night before the exodus from Egypt.
Egyptians had enslaved the Israelites. The Pharaoh had ordered their infant boys thrown into the Nile River.
In response, God sent ten plagues upon Egypt as judgments.
Similar to the Egyptian Pharaoh’s command to kill Hebrew infants, God’s final plague on Egypt was the angel of death sent to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians.
On the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan, each Israelite family was to kill a lamb and put its blood over the doorposts of their house so that the judgment of the angel of death would “pass over” their home, indicating their faith that the sacrificed lamb had taken the judgment in their place.
Exodus 12:8 gave instructions regarding the Passover lamb:
“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”
A Hebrew day began at sunset and lasted until the next sunset.
In 33 AD, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples in the evening and then in the morning he was crucified — on the day of Passover.
The Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 5:7:
“For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
The lamb is considered the most innocent of animals. John the Baptist saw Jesus and exclaimed:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!” John 1:29.
Justin Martyr, who live c.100 to 165 AD, described:
“That lamb … was commanded to be wholly roasted … a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb … is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb.”
Crucifixion was designed to stretch out the agony of death as long as possible. It was the most painful of Roman tortures, reserved for slaves and rebels.
Dr. Alexander Metherell, M.D., Ph.D. wrote:
“The pain was absolutely unbearable … In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: ‘excruciating.’ Literally, excruciating means ‘out of the cross.’”
Cicero called crucifixion, “the most cruel and hideous of tortures.”
Historian Will Durant wrote that “even the Romans … pitied the victims.”
Isaiah chapter 53 prophetically foretold the Messiah’s suffering:
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed …
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent …
He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished …
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer …
The Lord makes his life an offering for sin …
My righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities …
For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Jordan Peterson described on the Joe Rogan Experience (episode #1769, 1/25/22):
“The imagery of the crucifix and the story that surrounds it … You cannot write a more tragic story. Its impossible. Technically. Why? … Because it is the story of the aggregation of everything that people are afraid of.
There was no death more painful than crucifixion. That’s why the Romans invented it. It was to punish political miscreants.
It was a slow agonizing death by suffocation, essentially, and dehydration and exposure. Extraordinarily painful … That’s pain, man!
Plus you know it is coming. That is part of the story. Plus your best friend betrayed you into it. Plus your people turned against you. Plus you’re led by a tyrant who doubts truth. Plus you are a victim of the Roman Empire.
Plus you are completely innocent. Plus everybody knows it. Plus they choose a criminal to be released from this experience even though they know he’s a criminal and they know you are innocent.”
The next Jewish Feast after Passover was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Mark 14:1:
“After two days was the feast of passover, and of unleavened bread.”
“Leaven” is another name for “yeast.” On this feast, Jews would get all the leaven or yeast out of their homes.
Leaven is symbolic of sinfulness.
Matthew 16:6:
“Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees …
Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
On the exact Feast of Unleavened Bread, when Jews were getting the leaven out of their homes, Jesus was in the tomb – He “who taketh away the sins of the world.”
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:6–8:
“Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven …
Let us keep the Feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Theologians have debated what Jesus may have experienced when He suffered. In Matthew 12, Jesus replied to those demanding a sign:
“None will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
The Book of Jonah recorded:
“Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly … out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight … the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever.”
Next is the Feast of First Fruits marking the earliest harvest of the spring, the winter barley, which is the first grain to ripen in Israel’s growing season.
As soon as it appeared above ground it was harvested and brought to the temple.
Leviticus 23:9-14:
“When you enter the land … and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest …
The priest … shall wave the sheaf before the Lord.”
Jesus rose from the dead on exact day of the Feast of First Fruits.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:20–23:
“But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept …
But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
Jonah declared:
“Thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple …
Salvation is of the Lord.’ So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
The fact that the Gospels have women being the first to testify of Christ’s resurrection is evidence that the disciples did not make up the story, as women were not accepted as witnesses at that time.
Josephus included in the Antiquities of the Jews this first century legal policy:
“Let not the testimony of women be admitted.”
Anyone wanting to fabricate a story would certainly have had made it up with the most reputable men being the first witnesses, not uneducated fishermen and women.
The fact that the Gospels record Jesus first appearing to women is evidence that the resurrection account was not a made up story.
Sir Lionel Luckhoo (1914-1997) was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as world’s most successful criminal attorney. He wrote:
“The bones of Muhammad are in Medina, the bones of Confucius are in Shantung, the cremated bones of Buddha are in Nepal. Thousands pay pilgrimages to worship at their tombs which contain their bones. …
But in Jerusalem there is a cave cut into the rock. This is the tomb of Jesus. IT IS EMPTY! YES, EMPTY! BECAUSE HE IS RISEN!
He died, physically and historically. He arose from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of God.”
President Donald J. Trump posted Truth Social @TrumpDailyPosts, 04/13/25 08:53 PM:
“This Holy Week, Christians around the World remember the Crucifixion of God’s Only Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate His Glorious Resurrection and proclaim, as Christians have done for nearly 2,000 years, ‘HE IS RISEN!’
Through the pain and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we saw God’s boundless Love and Devotion to all Humanity and, in that moment of His Resurrection, History was forever changed with the Promise of Everlasting Life.”
In closing, one last question needs to be answered. Why did the Lamb have to die?
To answer that, we must ask:
Why did God make us?
Out of everything God created, we are the only ones made in His image with a free will ability to love God back.
Secondly, God has to hide himself behind His creation for us to have a free will, because if He ever revealed Himself in all of overwhelming, omnipotent, universe creating power, your response would be involuntary. And for love to be love it must be voluntary!
Thirdly, God is just and therefore must judge every sin. If He does not judge a sin, His silence would be giving consent to sin.
Numbers 30 explains silence equals consent. This is seen in a wedding ceremony, where the minister asks if anyone objects they should speak now or forever hold their peace. By staying silent, those in attendance are giving their consent. In law, this is called “the rule of tacit admission.”
If God is silent and does not judge a sin, even the smallest, His silence would effectively be giving consent to the sin. And if God gives consent to one sin one time, He denies His just nature, He denies Himself. And 2 Timothy 2:13 declares “God cannot deny Himself.”
So He has to judge every sin.
In mathematical equations, there are constants and variables.
In the equation of redemption, the constant is God is just, forever was, is, and forever will be just. That will never change.
The variable is who takes the judgment – you or a substitute.
The Lamb is our substitute. The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you.
Charles Wesley wrote the hymn: “Amazing love! how can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me!”
God is just in that He judges every sin, but God is love in that He provided the Lamb to take the judgment for our sins.
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.” John 3:16.
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45.
The sacrifice of the Lamb was foreshadowed by the coats of skins God made for Adam and Eve.
It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices made by Abel, Noah, and Abraham.
In Genesis 22:7-8:
“Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for burnt offering.”
It was foreshadowed in the Law of Moses with the Passover lamb, and on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest brought the blood of lamb into Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. The blood changed it from a “judgment” seat into a “mercy seat.”
It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices of David, Solomon, and Elijah.
Finally, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and declared:
“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.”
Believers in the Old Testament had faith in the Lamb to come; believers in the New Testament have faith in the Lamb that came, but salvation is through the Lamb.
The Lamb of God took the judgment for all of your sins.
Another question is, how was Jesus’ sacrifice enough to pay for the sins of all mankind?
Jesus is divine and experienced judgment in a dimension we will never understand.
2 Peter 3:8 says:
“A day with the Lord is as a thousand years.” Jesus experienced the day on the cross as if it were a thousand years.
In God’s perfect justice:
the eternal Being, Jesus, who is innocent suffering for a finite–limited period of time
is equal to
all of us finite–limited beings who are guilty suffering for an eternal period of time.
Infinity times finite equals finite times infinity.
An unlimited Being suffering for a limited period of time equals all of us limited beings suffering for an unlimited period of time.
Jesus suffered the equivalent of eternal judgement in all or our places, and He is THE ONLY ONE who could have done it!
Jesus, out of love for the Father and love for you and me became the Lamb, “endured the cross,” and took the wrath of a just God upon Himself on the cross in our place.
And then He rose from the dead to prove He was who He said He was.
The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you!
When someone believes the Gospel – that Jesus suffered in their place, that their sins have been taken away, and that they are accepted by God – they are filled with joy and gratefulness.
You experience the unconditional love of God which brings a change from the inside–out, a polarity change in the heart.
Instead of avoiding God, you are drawn to Him through Jesus the Son.
John 14:6:
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Then, you are filled with Holy Spirit, who brings about a change in your behavior, drawing you to share the unconditional love of God with a lost and hurting world.
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American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate.
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Reposted with permission.
Nine to Nothing: A Song About Our 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court Victory Written by Chet Higa
Mr. Chet Higa was a friend of our late co-founder Charlie Everett. Chet and Chalie served in the U.S. Navy’s “Silent Service” and remained lifelong friends. Chet wrote a tribute song about Charlie and a song about Camp Constitution. When he learned of the “Shurtleff v Boston” case, a 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court decision, http://www.lc.org/flag he was motivated to write this song. While it isn’t likely to be a Top 40 hit song, we are grateful to Chet.