In 1984, in front of the Dallas City Hall, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag as a means of protest against Reagan administration policies. Johnson was tried and convicted under a Texas law outlawing flag desecration. He was sentenced to …

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that burning the Flag of the United States was protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as doing so counts as symbolic speech and political speech.

A Texas court tried and convicted Johnson. He appealed, arguing that his actions were "symbolic speech" protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court agreed to hear his case.

Texas v. Johnson: The First Amendment protections on symbolic speech prevent states from banning desecrations of the American flag.

Texas v. Johnson, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5–4) on June 21, 1989, that the burning of the U.S. flag is a protected form of speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In Texas v. Johnson, a divided Supreme Court held that burning the flag was protected expression under the First Amendment. The case was decided twenty years after the birth of the “counterculture” movement, fifteen years after the end of the Vietnam War, and in the midst of the Cold War, although that was soon coming to an end.

Mar 16, 2017 · Texas v. Johnson Case Brief. Statement of the Facts: Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted for desecrating a flag after publically burning an American flag in political protest at a Republican rally. Johnson then challenged his conviction under the Texas state law in a state court claiming the law violated his First Amendment right to freedom of ...

Texas law prohibited “desecration of a venerated object,” and Texas sentenced Johnson to one year imprisonment. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals reversed Johnson’s conviction, finding flag burning as protected political speech under the First Amendment, and the State appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, who granted certiorari .

Jan 1, 2009 · Texas v. Johnson (1989) struck down on First Amendment grounds a flag desecration law. The has decision served as the crux of the debate about burning of the U.S. flag in protest.

In a political demonstration during the Republican National Convention in Texas, Gregory Lee Johnson doused an American flag with kerosene and set it on fire. He was part of a group protesting the policies of the Reagan Administration and of certain corporations based in Dallas.