Texas vs Johnson Court Case: Facts, Arguments, and Court Rulings

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TEXAS VS JOHNSON COURT CASE
The facts of the case
The 1989 Supreme Court case Texas v. Johnson centered around whether burning the American flag was protected free speech under the First Amendment. The events leading to the case began in 1984 during the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas. Gregory Lee Johnson, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, participated in a political demonstration against the policies of the Reagan administration and certain Dallas-based corporations. The protest march culminated in a rally near Dallas City Hall, where Johnson soaked an American flag in kerosene and set it on fire as protesters chanted, "America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you." No one was physically harmed by the flag burning, but many spectators were extremely offended. The police did not arrest Johnson while he burned the flag, but he was arrested and charged with violating a Texas statute shortly afterward. The statute in question prohibited the desecration of venerated objects, including the American flag. Johnson was specifically charged with burning the flag in a way that the actor knows will seriously offend others – an offense under the Texas law. He was tried and convicted in a Texas court, sentenced to one year in jail, and fined $2,000. Johnson appealed the conviction, claiming the statute violated his First Amendment right to free speech. After losing his appeal in Texas courts, the case made its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The central constitutional issue in Texas v. Johnson thus became whether Johnson's act of burning the American flag protected symbolic speech under the First Amendment or whether Texas had a right to prohibit flag desecration to protect the flag as a national symbol.
Arguments on each side of the case
The central constitutional issue was whether flag burning constitutes expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.