ABSTRACT
In Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc., 515 US 557 (1995), the US Supreme Court grappled with a public-accommodations statute that, as applied by a court, pitted the right of free speech protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution against the right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. John Hurley and the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council (Council) appealed the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling that their city-permitted Saint Patrick's Day Parade had no expressive purpose sufficient to justify a First Amendment exclusion of the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group (GLBG) members from marching to express their Irish heritage in pride as being openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual. At issue was the state supreme court's application of the state's public-accommodations law. Hurley is intriguing because no other gay-rights claim decided on its merits by the Court was unanimous.
