A Montco township can’t ban ‘thin blue line’ flag, federal judge rules

A Montgomery County township cannot bar police and municipal employees from displaying the “thin blue line” flag, a federal judge ruled this week.

The ruling comes after Pennsylvania’s largest police union filed a lawsuit in January, alleging that leaders in Springfield Township had violated the Constitution by banning the flag.

Adopted by some police departments and their supporters after 2020′s mass protests over police brutality, the flag depicts a black-and-white American flag with one blue stripe, and has been tied to the “Blue Lives Matter” slogan used by supporters of law enforcement.

“We are elated with the ruling,” said Wally Zimolong, a lawyer representing the police officers. “It is a complete vindication of our clients’ claims. We are incredibly proud to represent them and commend them for their courage in pursuing their claims. It is a resounding victory for the First Amendment, free speech, and law enforcement. "

Springfield Township officials banned its employees from displaying the flag on township property in January, saying that the flag had become central to tensions between marginalized communities and law enforcement, and adding that it had been adopted by white nationalists since its introduction.

A message left with Springfield Township’s manager was not immediately returned.

Tensions began when the Springfield Township Police Department incorporated the “thin blue line” flag into its official logo in 2021.

District Judge Karen Marston wrote in Monday’s ruling that the Springfield’s ban was an “unconstitutional restriction on employee speech under the First Amendment,” which “protects speech even when it is considered ‘offensive.’”

Lawyers representing the Springfield Township Police Benevolent Association and the statewide union said in their lawsuit that the flag was a show of support and solidarity, as well as the “preservation of the rule of law, the protection of peace and freedom, the sacrifice of fallen law enforcement officers and the dedication of law enforcement officers.”

Springfield officers displayed variations of the flag on pins, clothing, bumper stickers, and other personal items — even on rubber replacement wedding rings, according to the lawsuit. They also displayed the flag at department events, which took place on township property.

That led Springfield Township to file a cease-and-desist order against the union in October 2022, writing in a letter that community members — including the township’s first Black commissioner — had expressed “deep discontent and distrust” over the department’s use of the flag, and adding that it had come to represent systematic oppression of minority communities and discriminatory police practices.

But the court found no evidence that the flag’s display had disrupted the workplace in Springfield, according to the ruling, and Marston disputed the breadth of the concerns that township leaders had alluded to.

“A handful of complaints does not transform the Township’s concerns of widespread discord from the ‘conjectural’ to the ‘real,’” Marston wrote.

After talks between the township and the police union over dropping the flag failed last fall, Springfield’s commissioners voted, 5-2, to ban the flag’s display by any township employee who was on duty, as well as on township property and vehicles.