Washington
Justices suggest Boston should have flown ‘Christian flag’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court justices seemed to have little doubt Tuesday that Boston was wrong to refuse to fly a banner described as a Christian flag outside City Hall.
Arguments at the high court appeared to unite justices on the left and right in favor of Harold Shurtleff, a conservative activist. Shurtleff wanted to fly a white banner with a red cross on a blue background in the upper left corner, called the Christian flag.
There are three flagpoles outside City Hall that fly the U.S., Massachusetts and Boston flags. Occasionally, the city takes down its own pennant and temporarily hoists another flag.
Although Boston had approved 284 straight applications — most involving the flags of other nations — a city official turned away Shurtleff and his Camp Constitution because he said he wanted to fly the Christian flag.
Justice Samuel Alito noted that Chinese and Cuban flags had flown outside City Hall. Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, representing Boston, said those were part of a policy that recognizes the heritage of Boston residents, not an endorsement of those regimes.
Justice Elena Kagan was among several justices who suggested the decision to refuse Shurtleff’s request was a simple mistake. “Why is it that people have not been able to correct this mistake?” Kagan asked.
The case hinges on whether the flag-flying is an act of the government, in which case Boston can do whatever it wants, or private parties like Shurtleff.
If the flagpole is more like a designated free speech or protest area of the kind outside City Hall in Boston and other government buildings around the country, Hallward-Driemeier conceded that turning away some points of view and allowing others amounts to discrimination.
The Biden administration and the American Civil Liberties Union are among a wide array of parties on Shurtleff’s side.
Boston has indicated it would change its policy if it loses the case to take more control of what flags can fly.
The case has a strange bedfellows aspect to it in that Shurtleff, a former organizer with the John Birch Society, uses his Camp Constitution website to question the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the outcome of the 2020 election that put President Joe Biden in office, the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and even who was behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
None of that came up during arguments.
A decision in Shurtleff v. Boston, 20-1800, is expected by late spring.
Maryland
Lawyer outlines defense for indicted Baltimore prosecutor
BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore’s top prosecutor is innocent of federal charges that she lied about the pandemic harming her personal businesses to withdraw money from her retirement savings, her lawyer argued as he defended her purchase of two Florida vacation homes.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is accused of lying about meeting qualifications for coronavirus-related distributions from a city retirement plan.
Her attorney, A. Scott Bolden, told reporters on Monday that Mosby was entitled to make an early withdrawal from her retirement savings without facing any penalties.
“I’m telling you she’s not only innocent, but we have professionals who she consulted with,” Bolden said at a news conference, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Mosby was indicted last Thursday on charges of perjury and making false mortgage applications to purchase a home in Kissimmee, Florida, and a condominium in Long Boat Key, Florida.
The indictment also alleges that Mosby, who received her full gross state’s attorney salary of $247,955, falsely certified that she experienced financial hardships because of the coronavirus when she submitted requests to withdraw $90,000 from Baltimore’s deferred compensation plans.
Bolden indicated that Mosby’s fledgling private businesses — Mahogany Elite Travel, Mahogany Elite Enterprises LLC and Mahogany Elite Consulting — allowed her to make the withdrawals. According to newspaper, Mosby has previously said she founded the companies to “help underserved Black families who don’t usually have the opportunity to travel outside of urban cities so they can vacation at various destinations throughout the world at affordable rates.”
“These were businesses that were starting. As a result, that does not disqualify her from, along with some other facts that we have to present, that certainly absolve her of any wrongdoing,” Bolden said.
On Friday, Mosby said she didn’t lie on her mortgage application.
“I wanted the people of Baltimore to hear it from me: I’ve done nothing wrong. I did not defraud anyone to take money from my retirement savings,” she said.
Mosby, 41, rose to national prominence in 2015 when she pursued criminal charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who suffered fatal injuries in police custody, sparking protests and riots. None of the officers were convicted.
Mosby’s husband is Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby. He has not been charged with any crimes.
Rhode Island
Contractor gets probation in tax evasion scheme
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A contractor from Massachusetts who frequently traveled to Rhode Island to cash business checks at a check-cashing facility to avoid reporting or paying taxes on nearly $2 million in income has been sentenced to two years of probation, federal prosecutors said.
Richard Karski, 60, owner and operator of K.C.O. Builders, was also ordered on Tuesday to pay nearly $180,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, Zachary Cunha.
Karski frequented the Pawtucket check-cashing business to cash payments he had received from clients, then did not report the income to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.
From 2015 through 2018, he failed to declare any income or pay any taxes on almost $2 million in business and personal income, prosecutors said.
He pleaded guilty in October.
