Flag Burning

WORKS CITED

1. Anderson, Glenn ed. Constitution of the State of California and of the United States and other documents. Sacramento: California State Senate, 1961

2. Barker, Lucius J. Freedoms, Courts, Politics: Studies in Civil Liberties, with revisions. Prentice, 1965

3. Goldstein, Robert J. Flag Burning and Free Speech: the case of Texas vs. Johnson. Kansas: University Press of Kansas, c2000

4. Kenworthy, Tom. "Flag amendment sent to House floor; Democratic leaders will seek Thursday vote, hoping to kill measure." Washington Post. 20 June 1990: 14

5. Lee, Steven. Flag Burning: Right or Wrong? 28 November 2002. http://www.tcn.net/~opticom/Steve/index.html

6. McDaniel, Ann. "A Burning Constitutional Issue: can Congress Protect the American Flag?" Newsweek. 21 May 1990: 71

7. Morahan, Lawrence. "Key Lawmakers Introduce Flag-Protection Amendment". Conservative News Service. 24 February 1999. 28 November 2002. http://www.cnsnews.com/InDepth/archive/199902/IND19990224c.html

8. POAAFA. "The Supreme Court's Written Decision On Flag Desecration in the Case Texas vs. Johnson." Flag Desecration Amendment POAAFA Home Page. 28 November 2002. http://irtafa.dreamhost.com/texasvsjohnson.html

9. "Show your colors, America!" The American Legion. Jan. 1998: 56

10. "State of Texas vs. Johnson". Cyber Essays. 28 November 2002. http://www.cyberessays.com/Politics/38.htm

11. "The American Legion Citizens Flag Alliance." American Legion. 28 November 2002. www.legion.org/our_legion/documents/cfa.rtf

12. "The Right to Shock and Hate." Conservative Politics: U.S. 28 November 2002. http://usconservatives.about.com/library/weekly/aaflaga.htm

13. "We the People. And our Flag." New York Times. 14 June 1990: 18

14. Wolf, Kenneth J. "Flag Burning a Sensitive Issue." Captured Thoughts. 28 November 2002. http://www.accs.net/users/wolf/letter03.htm

America the Beautiful. America the Brave. America the free. These common sayings are what bring people to our country. They come looking for freedom and security. Traditionally, our symbol for America has been the flag, with it's bold stars and stripes. Yet this representation of our country has recently been an object of protest against our government. In the case of 1984, Johnson vs. the State of Texas, Johnson proceeded to burn the flag in a protest. On the ruling of disturbing the peace, desecrating the flag, and potentially causing uproar and violence, Johnson was sentenced to jail. His case, through an appeal, went to the Supreme Court where he was granted innocence, as the previous ruling conflicted with the first amendment right of freedom of expression. Is using the symbol of our country's freedom to show resistance against our government a safe protest? Or should it be illegal, as an act of ignorance and immaturity?

Gregory Lee Johnson, a resident of the state of Texas, participated in a political conference concerning the Reagan administration and some Dallas-based corporations (POAAFA 1). In this presentation, Johnson expressed his views on recent happenings by burning the American flag in front of an entire audience. He was arrested, and tried by the state of Texas in 1985. Johnson was here convicted on a physically expressed act, rather than a written one (Cyber 1). The court decided that although Johnson had not caused uproar, his acts had the potential to do so. Johnson had disrupted his responsibility to preserve the integrity of the flag, as was against a law in Texas (Goldstein 29), along with 47 other states, at the time. His sentence was mild, yet his lawyer saw beyond the issue of him being found guilty. Lawyers backing up Johnson made an appeal on May 8, 1985, to the Fifth Texas Supreme Judicial District (Lee 2).

The case was taken along the lines of Texas overriding the first amendment right of freedom of expression/speech. On April 20, 1988, by a vote of 5-4, the Texas court of Appeals declared that the primary decision was unconstitutional, and that Johnson was innocent.

Because of further discrepancy, the case was put to national standards. The Supreme Court, followed by insane media coverage, took less than a month on deciding the Texas Appeals court was correct: burning the flag was completely constitutional (Legion 1). Despite the ironic uproar caused by this ruling, the Supreme Court held, abolishing 48 state's and the District of Columbia's laws against any desecration of the American flag (Lee 2). Had publicly burning a flag caused a more violent uproar, this would have been an entirely different case. Yet because the possibility (of burning the flag causing a more serious protest) is not enough to deter the court's decision, it still stands firm.

In May of 1970, before the precedent set in the Johnson vs. Texas case, Harold O. Spence, a college student, displayed the American flag improperly in the window of his dorm (Lee 3). It hung upside down, with two peace-symbols inscribed on it, as though it was just an ordinary piece of cloth. Clearly visible, three passing policemen came in and arrested Spence on the charge of "improper use of the flag". At the Washington state trial, Spence argued his reasoning for displaying the flag as he had. In regards to the U.S entering into Cambodia and the recent shootings at Kent State University (in Ohio), Spence said, "I felt there had been so much killing that this was not what America stood for. I felt that the flag stood for America and I wanted people to know that I thought America stood for peace." In arguing his case so intensely, Spence was sentenced to a 10-day jail suspension, and then released. Washington's state law was illegally applied to Spence, as they prosecuted him for "the expression of an idea through activity". Since the 1985 case, however, Washington's laws involving the protection of the flag aren't even in existence.

The First Amendment: the most argued, spat upon, and looked up-to amendment in our constitution. It states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,