June 21, 1989: Texas v. Johnson was the landmark Supreme Court ruling that decided that burning the United States flag was protected speech under the First Amendment because it is considered symbolic speech and political speech.

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Texas v. Johnson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that burning the American flag was protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as doing so counts as symbolic speech and political speech.

In the case, activist Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted for burning an American flag during a protest outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, and was fined $2,000 and sentenced to one year in jail in accordance with Texas law. Justice William Brennan wrote for the five-justice majority that Johnson’s flag burning was protected under the freedom of speech, and therefore the state could not censor Johnson nor punish him for his actions.

The ruling invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag, which at the time were enforced in 48 of the 50 states. The ruling was unpopular with the general public and lawmakers, with President George H. W. Bush calling flag burning “dead wrong”. The ruling was challenged by Congress, who passed the Flag Protection Act later that year, making flag desecration a federal crime. The law’s legitimacy was questioned before the Supreme Court, which again affirmed in United States v. Eichman (1990) that flag burning was a protected form of free speech, and overruled the Flag Protection Act as unconstitutional. In the years following the ruling, Congress considered the Flag Desecration Amendment several times, which would amend the Constitution to make flag burning illegal, but has never successfully passed. The issue of flag burning remained controversial decades later, and it is still utilized as a form of protest.[2]