Is Flag-Burning Constitutionally Protected?
The United States is well-known for its principles of freedom and democracy, which is demonstrated through the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. Thus, American citizens can openly discuss political matters; criticize the President and his Cabinet on television, radio talk show or in the newspaper; or publicly protest against the government tax policy. However, Free Speech protection becomes debatable when some American citizens burn the nation’s flag to express their disagreement to the government. The act of burning the American Flag should be constitutionally protected under the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause because the act is a symbolic expression that communicates an individual’s idea or opinion about his nation; and that the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause covers and protects symbolic expression. I. First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause and Texas v. Johnson (1989) a) First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause
The First Amendment was written in the Constitution in 1791, which listed basic civil liberties, rights that the government cannot take away from an individual, including free establishment and exercise of religion, freedom of speech, of the press, assembly and petition. The Free Speech Clause was added to the First Amendment in 1789 by James Madison, which stated that “Congress shall make no law….abridging freedom of speech”. Freedom of speech allows an individual to openly voice his opinions without fear of government’s censorship and is seen as a privilege to most Americans, which set them apart from other nations.
However freedom of speech is not absolute. The word “abridging” in the Free Speech Clause suggests that government cannot deprive the right to freedom of speech; but at the same time the suggestion is unclear about whether the government can put restrictions on how “free” the speech can be. Most people when mention the word “speech”, usually have the tendency to think of spoken words and often neglect the existence of
The First Amendment was written in the Constitution in 1791, which listed basic civil liberties, rights that the government cannot take away from an individual, including free establishment and exercise of religion, freedom of speech, of the press, assembly and petition. The Free Speech Clause was added to the First Amendment in 1789 by James Madison, which stated that “Congress shall make no law….abridging freedom of speech”. Freedom of speech allows an individual to openly voice his opinions without fear of government’s censorship and is seen as a privilege to most Americans, which set them apart from other nations.
However freedom of speech is not absolute. The word “abridging” in the Free Speech Clause suggests that government cannot deprive the right to freedom of speech; but at the same time the suggestion is unclear about whether the government can put restrictions on how “free” the speech can be. Most people when mention the word “speech”, usually have the tendency to think of spoken words and often neglect the existence of
Bibliography: Arbuckle, Mark R. (2003) “Vanishing Protection for Symbolic Expression 35 years after US. O’Brien”. Communications and the Law. EBSCOhost. Trinity University. Oct 23, 2010. Goldstein, Robert Justin. Desecration the American flag: key documents of the controversy from Civil War to 1995. Syracuse University Press, 1996. Goldstein, Robert Justin. Flag Burning & Free Speech. University Press of Kansas, 2000. Greenawalt, Kent. “O’er the land of the free: Flag burning as speech” 37 UCLA L. Rev. 925 (1990) Parker, Richard A, Ed Richards, David A. J. “Melville B. Nimmer Symposium: Article: A Theory of Free Speech” UCLA Law Review, 1987 Sunstein, Cass A Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397(1989) United States v Volokh, Eugene “Symbolic Expression and the Original Meaning of the First Amendment”. Georgetown L. Rev. 97 (2009): 1057-1084 Abbott, Edwin A Tiersma, Peter. “Nonverbal communication and freedom of speech” Wis. L. Rev. 1525 (1993) Wasserman, Howard