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Jun 21, 2024 · On June 21, 1989, a deeply divided United States Supreme Court upheld the rights of protesters to burn the American flag in a landmark First Amendment decision. In the controversial Texas v. Johnson case, the Court voted 5-4 in favor of Gregory Lee Johnson, the protester who had burned the flag. Johnson’s actions, the majority argued, were ...
- First Amendment
The U.S. Supreme Court opens a new term on the eve of an...
- First Amendment
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 Flag of the United States was protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as doing so counts as symbolic speech and political speech.
Jun 11, 2015 · Eichman, which was decided exactly 25 years ago, on June 11, 1990, the Supreme Court once again ruled that burning the flag was an example of constitutionally protected free speech. Further ...
Accessed 18 November 2024. Texas v. Johnson (1989), legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, declaring that the government could not prohibit ‘expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable,’ ruled that the burning of the U.S. flag is a protected form of speech under the First Amendment.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Facts
- Reasoning
- Dissent
Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag outside of the convention center where the 1984 Republican National Convention was being held in Dallas, Texas. Johnson burned the flag to protest the policies of President Ronald Reagan. He was arrested and charged with violating a Texas statute that prevented the desecration of a venerated object, inclu...
The majority of the Court, according to Justice William Brennan, agreed with Johnson and held that flag burning constitutes a form of "symbolic speech" that is protected by the First Amendment. The majority noted that freedom of speech protects actions that society may find very offensive, but society's outrage alone is not justification for suppre...
Justice Stevens
Writing for the dissent, Justice Stevens argued that the flag's unique status as a symbol of national unity outweighed "symbolic speech" concerns, and thus, the government could lawfully prohibit flag burning.
Jun 21, 1989 · WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled today that burning of the American flag as a political protest is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. The court’s action came in a case ...
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Who burned the American flag in the Texas v Johnson case?
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Did the Supreme Court stop Americans from desecrating the flag?
Jan 1, 2009 · Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), the Supreme Court struck down on First Amendment grounds a Texas flag desecration law. The 5-4 decision has served as the center point of a continuing debate regarding the value of free speech as exercised through the burning of the U.S. flag as a form of political protest.
