Activist recalls role in landmark flag-burning case

Gregory Lee "Joey" Johnson speaks about his flag-burning case

During a visit to USC Law last week, Gregory Lee “Joey” Johnson recalled his role in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized flag burning as a means of political expression.

In 1984 Johnson traveled to the Republican National Convention in Dallas to protest Ronald Reagan’s policies and what Johnson called “American imperialism.” At the end of one demonstration, in front of the Dallas City Hall, he unfurled the American flag, doused it with kerosene and set it on fire.

“We came, we saw, we burned,” Johnson told students in Professor Mary Dudziak’s Constitutional Law class. “It was a very determined protest. It was meant to be defiant.”

Johnson was arrested, charged with “desecration of a venerated object” and eventually sentenced to a year in prison and fined $2,000. Five years later, Texas v. Johnson reached the Supreme Court, which overturned Johnson’s conviction in a 5-4 decision, ruling that flag burning was “directly related to expression.”

Writing for the majority, Justice William Brennan said, “We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.”

Brennan added, “We can imagine no more appropriate response to burning a flag than waving one’s own.”

Johnson said his case showed that the U.S. government “was violating its own professed belief in free speech.” He urged the students to think about how socio-political pressures affect the law.

“Every Supreme Court case, every legal battle has its historical context,” said Johnson, who is currently organizing protests against a possible war with Iraq. “They don’t happen in a vacuum.”