1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,960 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:08,840 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,600 Speaker 1: a show that shines a light on the ups and 4 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: downs of everyday history. I'm Gabe Lousier, and today we're 5 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: talking about a landmark case that confirmed the right of 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:24,640 Speaker 1: US citizens to deface one of the most revered symbols 7 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: of their own country. The day was June one, nine. 8 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: In a narrow decision, the United States Supreme Court upheld 9 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: the rights of protesters to burn the American flag. The 10 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,920 Speaker 1: court voted five to four in favor of Gregory Lee Johnson, 11 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,400 Speaker 1: a protester who had set fire to the flag at 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: the four Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas. The majority 13 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,360 Speaker 1: of the court held that Johnson's action had constituted a 14 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:07,200 Speaker 1: form of symbolic speech and was therefore protected by the 15 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: First Amendment. While flag burning had never been widely embraced 16 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 1: by the American public, the fight to ban it only 17 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: gained traction during the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty eight, 18 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,880 Speaker 1: Congress cracked down on anti war protesters by passing a 19 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: federal ban on all forms of flag desecration, including burning it. 20 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 1: Most states were of the same mind on the issue. 21 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:35,240 Speaker 1: In fact, forty eight of them already had their own 22 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:39,800 Speaker 1: laws against flag burning on the books. Naturally, Texas was 23 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,480 Speaker 1: among those states. As Gregory Lee Johnson found out in 24 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:47,600 Speaker 1: four he had traveled to Dallas with his friends and 25 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: fellow members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, a group later 26 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: described by their own lawyer as quote punk anarchists who 27 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: despised the government and big business. Each of the convention, 28 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:04,800 Speaker 1: Johnson and his friends gathered outside the stage, die ins 29 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:09,160 Speaker 1: and other dramatic forms of protest. At one point, Johnson 30 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: poured kerosene on an American flag that had been stolen 31 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: from a nearby display and set it on fire in 32 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: front of Dallas City Hall. As it burned, he and 33 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:23,840 Speaker 1: other protesters chanted quote red, white and blue, we spit 34 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:27,560 Speaker 1: on you. You stand for plunder, you will go under. 35 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: After the demonstration had ended, one witness reportedly collected the 36 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:37,240 Speaker 1: flags remains and buried them in his backyard. In a 37 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,960 Speaker 1: later interview with c Span, Johnson explained that his action 38 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,400 Speaker 1: was meant to protest the policies of the Reagan administration 39 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 1: and the gung ho militarism of the era. Quote we 40 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: wanted to do as much as possible to puncture the 41 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:57,680 Speaker 1: whole chauvinistic ramboistic atmosphere around that convention. Johnson and about 42 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: a hundred others were arrested that day, but he was 43 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 1: the only one charged and ultimately convicted of breaking the 44 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:08,519 Speaker 1: Texas law. He was fined two thousand dollars and sentenced 45 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,120 Speaker 1: to one year in prison. A series of appeals first 46 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: affirmed and then reversed that conviction, ultimately sending the case 47 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 1: all the way up to the Supreme Court. In the 48 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: case of Texas v. Johnson, defense attorneys argued that flag 49 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 1: burning was exactly the kind of symbolic speech that the 50 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:31,120 Speaker 1: First Amendment had been designed to protect. The majority of 51 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: the court agreed, noting that the outrage and offense that 52 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: many citizens felt at the sight of a burning flag 53 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: was not just cause for suppressing free speech. Justices William Brennan, 54 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: Anthony Kennedy, Thurgood Marshal, Harry Blackman, and Antonin Scalia formed 55 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: the majority opinion, while Chief Justice William Renquest dissented, along 56 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:59,280 Speaker 1: with Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Byron White. 57 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: Writing for the dissent, Justice Stevens argued that the flag 58 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: holds a special status as a symbol of national unity, 59 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 1: and that as such, its protection should be of greater 60 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,120 Speaker 1: concern than what he viewed as a crude form of 61 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:18,360 Speaker 1: symbolic speech. Steven's worried that allowing such shows of disrespect 62 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: would gradually wear away the meaning and effectiveness of the 63 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: flag as a symbol. Strikingly conservative Justice Antonin Scalia disagreed 64 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: and ultimately sided with the majority during oral arguments, Scalia 65 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:37,720 Speaker 1: explained that quote, Johnson's actions would have been useless and 66 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: less the flag was a very good symbol for what 67 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:44,039 Speaker 1: he intended to show. Contempt for his action does not 68 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: make it any less a symbol. In the majority decision, 69 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,760 Speaker 1: Justice William Brennan echoed this idea and suggested that allowing 70 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 1: the flag to be burned in protest is actually an 71 00:04:56,040 --> 00:04:59,480 Speaker 1: endorsement of the freedom it's meant to represent. As he 72 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: put it, quote, the flag's deservedly cherished place in our 73 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:08,520 Speaker 1: community will be strengthened, not weakened, by our holding today. 74 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 1: Our decision is a reaffirmation of the principles of freedom 75 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: and inclusiveness that the flag best reflects, and of the 76 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: conviction that our toleration of criticism such as Johnson's is 77 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 1: a sign and source of our strength. Indeed, one of 78 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:27,000 Speaker 1: the proudest images of our flag, the one immortalized in 79 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:30,719 Speaker 1: our own national anthem, is of the bombardment it survived 80 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:35,480 Speaker 1: at Fort McHenry. It is the nation's resilience, not its rigidity, 81 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:38,640 Speaker 1: the Texas SE's reflected in the flag, and it is 82 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: that resilience that we reassert today. The Court's ruling swept 83 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:47,479 Speaker 1: away the nineteen sixty eight Federal band and the flag 84 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: burning laws of forty eight states, but that was hardly 85 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,440 Speaker 1: the end of the debate. Just a few months later, 86 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: Congress responded by passing the Flag Protection Act of nineteen 87 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: eighty nine, a new national ban on flag burning. However, 88 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: the following year, the Supreme Court struck down that law 89 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:09,880 Speaker 1: as unconstitutional as well. Once again, the decision was five 90 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: to four. Justice William Brennan cited the Texas v. Johnson 91 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:17,360 Speaker 1: case in his opinion and reiterated the idea that personal 92 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:21,159 Speaker 1: offense does not outweigh the right to free speech. He 93 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: summed up by saying, quote, if there is a bedrock 94 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government 95 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because 96 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:37,279 Speaker 1: society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. Since that 97 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: second ruling in there have been multiple attempts to amend 98 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:45,760 Speaker 1: the Constitution so that laws against flag desecration can finally 99 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: be made legal. In fact, it was such a common 100 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:52,800 Speaker 1: occurrence in the nineteen nineties that The Simpsons even poked 101 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:56,720 Speaker 1: fun at the trend in an episode from The Gag 102 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,120 Speaker 1: was a parody of the Schoolhouse Rock educational shorts the 103 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies and centered on an anthropomorphic amendment to be 104 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:07,719 Speaker 1: who hoped to outlaw flag burning once and for all. 105 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: There's a lot of flag burners who have got too 106 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 1: much freedom. I wanna make it on their bodies. Please, 107 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:24,840 Speaker 1: are all pared freid that there are liberal freeds go 108 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: to fall? Why can't we just make a law against 109 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: flag burning? Because that law would be unconstitutional. But if 110 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: we change the Constitution, then we could make all sorts 111 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 1: of crazy laws. Now you're catching on. As of two 112 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: all of those proposed amendments have failed, But there's always 113 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,960 Speaker 1: the chance the Supreme Court could reassess its reading of 114 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:54,240 Speaker 1: Texas versus Johnson and declare that flag burning isn't covered 115 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:57,560 Speaker 1: by the First Amendment. After all, it certainly wouldn't be 116 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:01,600 Speaker 1: the first time in earlier decision was overrule old for now, though, 117 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:05,200 Speaker 1: Americans have a freedom that's denied the citizens and many 118 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 1: other countries around the world, the right to burn their 119 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: own flag in protests. I'm gay, Bluesier and hopefully you 120 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you 121 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show, 122 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at 123 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,880 Speaker 1: t d I HC Show, and if you have any 124 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:31,760 Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way 125 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,599 Speaker 1: at this Day at iHeart media dot com. Thanks to 126 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,000 Speaker 1: Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening. 127 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day 128 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:43,480 Speaker 1: in History class