by: Michael Shields
A terse, but poignant, defense of the right to burn the American flag in protest…
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.”))
