In Defense of the Right to Burn the Flag

by: Michael Shields

A terse, but poignant, defense of the right to burn the American flag in protest…

flag-burning

Amendment I. 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, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. ((This right, to burn a flag in protest, was defended in 1989, in Texas V. Johnson, and again in 1990, in US v. Eichman, with a similar conclusion: “It is unconstitutional for a government (federal, state, or municipality) to prohibit the desecration of a flag, due to its status as “symbolic speech.”))

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