In a free society where it often seems nothing is sacred, many feel
that one thing at least should be: that despite constitutional
guarantees of free speech, it should be illegal to desecrate the
American flag. For most Americans, no symbol is more charged with
emotion, and incidents of its abuse have led many to declare that
freedom of expression has its limits.
When Gregory Lee Johnson burned a flag as part of a political
protest, he was convicted for flag desecration under Texas law, but
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction on
First Amendment grounds and the Supreme Court confirmed that
physically damaging the flag constituted symbolic-and
protected-speech. Robert Justin Goldstein now examines this
landmark case and the attendant controversy over whether protection
of the flag conflicts with constitutional guarantees of free
speech. He also explores the case's ramifications for future legal
battles.
Goldstein, who has published widely on the flag desecration
debate, offers a concise and updated account of the controversy for
students and general readers. He traces the history of the flag
protection movement from its nineteenth-century origins through the
enactment of early state laws, and he examines modern incidents of
flag desecration from the Vietnam era to the present.
At the heart of the book is the Johnson case and the political
firestorm that it ignited. Goldstein examines the legal and
philosophical issues surrounding the case through courtroom
testimony, oral arguments, and interviews with Johnson, the lawyers
(including former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and the late
famed "radical attorney" William Kunstler), and the judges who
heard the many rounds of appeals. He then takes us inside the
Supreme Court to analyze the justices' reasoning that government
may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society
finds it offensive. Finally, he looks at reactions to the
decision-including recent heated attempts to protect the flag
through legislation or constitutional amendment.
Goldstein helps us better understand the human emotion and
psychological drama that underlie abstract legal and constitutional
issues and that fundamental rights sometimes are held by the courts
to be superior to majority rule or popular emotion. By
demonstrating how competing and often contradictory concepts can be
embodied in the very same symbol, he helps us understand the
fundamental meanings of democracy and patriotism.
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