Protection of the American Constitution

In the summer of 2009, Al Rozzi during a protest of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, burned a flag among a group of protesters. Rozzi was arrested for desecrating the American flag. Flag desecration is the act of intentionally destroying, damaging, or mutilating a flag. It’s usually done in the public and usually the destruction is caused to a national flag. Rozzi’s flag destruction is a form of protest which is considered a right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the American Constitution.
The controversy of flag desecration started with the case, United States Supreme Court in Texas v. Gregory Lee Johnson in 1989, when Johnson drenched an American flag in kerosene and burned it in front of the convention building while protesting the polices of Ronald Reagan. Other protesters followed Johnson with chanting “America; red, white and blue; we spit on you.” Johnson was arrested and convicted under a Texas law for intentionally desecrating a state or national flag. He was fined $2,000 and sentenced to one year in jail. He appealed the Supreme Court decision and Texas argued that they had a right to protect the flag as a symbol of national unity. Johnson argued that his freedom to express himself protected his actions. Luckily, the Court sided with Johnson’s argument for expressing freedom of speech.
The United States Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson case generated years of debate over the meaning of the flag, including efforts to amend the Constitution to allow for a prohibition of the “physical desecration” of the flag. Because of this controversial case, Congress rushed to create the Flag Protection Act of 1990, which enforced a federal ban on flag desecration. This act was later struck down in the United States v. Eichman case. Congress has made four attempts since 1995 to pass a Constitutional