The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled Friday that the city of Boston did not violate the First Amendment when it denied a private group’s request to fly a Christian flag on a flagpole at the city hall.

Over the course of the last 12 years, the city approved 284 flag-raising events in connection with various cultural celebrations, such as the gay pride flag, country flags and organization flags. An organization called Camp Constitution requested the ability to raise the Christian flag. The city determined that it would not allow the request as it had not flown any religious flags in the past.

The city was sued, and the plaintiffs argued that rejecting the request to display the flag amounted to a First Amendment free speech clause violation. The court concluded that the plaintiffs’ free speech argument failed as the decisions regarding which flags to pick amount to government speech.

The plaintiffs also claimed that the city violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause as it agreed to fly foreign countries’ flags with religious iconography but not the Christian flag. The court concluded that the city made a decision not to fly any purely religious flags, and therefore it stayed neutral between religions and did not violate the Establishment Clause.

Lastly, the court rejected the Equal Protection claim as the city flagpoles did not constitute a public forum.

The plaintiffs may now seek review before the Supreme Court.