Flag Desecration as Seditious Libel

Abstract

Burning the American flag under certain conditions is regarded as protected political protest, as the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found in Texas v. Johnson. Justice William J. Brennan Jr., who wrote the majority opinion, found this act was political speech and therefore allowed. To find otherwise would be to sanction prosecution for seditious libel, long discarded in the United States. The Supreme Court a year later also overturned a Congressional attempt to prosecute flag desecration under any condition. This study summarizes attempts of state legislatures and lesser courts to deal with those who use the flag as part of an act of political protest.