Practice Exam 2 ❮ 225Source C
Results of a survey conducted by U S A To d a y, June 23–25, 2006, http://www.usatoday
.com/news/washington/2006-06-26-poll-results_x.htm.
Some people feel that the U.S. Constitution should be amended to make it illegal to
burn or desecrate the American flag as a form of political dissent. Others say that the
U.S. Constitution should not be amended to specifically prohibit flag burning or des-
ecration. Do you think the U.S. Constitution should or should not be amended to
prohibit burning or desecrating the American flag?
Results based on 516 national adults in Form B:
Date asked Yes, amended No, not No opinion
June 23–25, 2006 45% 54% 2%
Source D
Two Supreme Court Decisions related to the desecration of the flag. Available at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/f lagburning/overview.aspx?topic=
f lag-burning_overview.
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the
United States. The question the Supreme Court had to answer was: “Is the desecration
of an American flag, by burning or otherwise, a form of speech that is protected under
the First Amendment?” Justice William Brennan wrote the 5–4 majority decision in
holding that the defendant’s act of flag burning was protected speech under the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The court held that the First Amendment prevented Texas from punishing the
defendant for burning the flag under the specified circumstances. The court first found
that burning of the flag was expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. The
court concluded that Texas could not criminally sanction flag desecration in order to
preserve the flag as a symbol of national unity. It also held that the statute did not meet
the state’s goal of preventing breaches of the peace, since it was not drawn narrowly
enough to encompass only those flag burnings that would likely result in a serious dis-
turbance, and since the flag burning in this case did not threaten such a reaction.
Subsequently, Congress passed a statute, the 1989 Flag Protection Act, making it a
federal crime to desecrate the flag. In the case of United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S.
310 (1990), that law was struck down by the same five-person majority of justices as
in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989).