What outcome did the Supreme Court reach in Texas v. Johnson regarding the Texas flag desecration law?

• A. The flag desecration law was unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
• B. The flag desecration law was constitutional.
• C. The Court did not address flag desecration.
• D. The flag desecration law was unconstitutional on non-First Amendment grounds.

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the First Amendment protects symbolic speech, including politically charged acts like burning a flag. In this case, the Supreme Court held that Texas’s law criminalizing flag desecration violated that protection because it punished the expressive act itself. The Court explained that the government cannot prohibit the expression just because it disagrees with the message or finds it offensive; singling out flag desecration as a crime amounted to a content-based restriction on speech. So, the flag desecration law was struck down as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Court did address flag desecration and did not decide the issue on non-First Amendment grounds.