Flag Desecration

Sources

Legal Cases:

Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)

Ex Parte Starr 263 F. 145 (D. Mont. 1920)

Halter v. Nebraska, 205 U.S. 34 (1907)

Koser and Stone v. County of Price, City of Ashland, et.al, 834 F.Supp. 305 1993, U.S. Dist LEXIS 14225 (1993)

Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31, 99 S.Ct. 2627, 61 L.Ed 2d 343 (1979)

People ex rel. McPike v. Van de Carr, 178 N.Y. 475, 70 N.E. 965 (1904)

Ruhstrat v. People, 185 Ill. 133, 57 N.E. 41 (1900)

Spence v. Washington 418 U.S. 405 (1974)

State v. Janssen 213 Wis. 2d 471, 570 N.W. 2d 746 (Ct. App. 1997)

State v. Janssen, 219 Wis. 2d 362; 580 N.W. 2d 260; 1998 Wisc. Lexis 102 (1998)

State v. Schumacher 103 Kan. 741, 175 P. 978 (1918)

Street v. New York 394 U.S. 576 (1969)

Texas v. Johnson 491 U.S. 397 (1989)

United States v. Eichman 496 U.S. 310 (1990)

United States ex. rel. Radich v. Criminal Court of New York City 385 F.Supp. 165 (1974)

West Virgina Board of Education v.Barnette 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., 427 U.S. 50 (1976)

Editorials and Letters to the Editor:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 3 and 4, 1998; June 16, 1999; April 9 and 16, 2000; Sept. 22, 2001; August 12, 2003, pg. 1B.

Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 25 and Feb. 16, 1999; July 4, 2001; May 30, 2003.

Madison Capitol Times, July 24, 1998; Mar. 10, 1999; Apr. 28, 2000; Oct. 9, 2001.

Wisconsin Historical Society Resources

Bradway, Chattin. Growing Disrespect for the Nation’s Flag (self-published pamphlet, 1914).

Miller, Charles Kingsbury. Desecration of the American Flag (pamphlet, Chicago, 1903).

Books:

Curtis, Michael Kent. (ed). The Constitution and the Flag (New York: Garland Press, 1993).

Goldstein, Robert Justin. Flag Burning and Free Speech: The Case of Texas v. Johnson (University Press of Kansas, 2000).

-------. (editor). Desecrating the American Flag: Key Documents of the Controversies from the Civil War to 1995 (Syracuse University Press, 1996).)

O’Leary, Cecilia Elizabeth. To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism ( Princeton University Press, 2000).

Welch, Michael . Flag Burning: Moral Panic and the Criminalization of Protest (New York: de Gruyter, 2000).

Law Review Articles:

Note. “Flag Burning, Flag Waving and the Law,” 4 Valparaiso University Law Review 345 (1970). [compilation of state flag desecration statutes]

Ely, John. “Flag Desecration: A Case Study in the Roles of Categorization and Balancing in First Amendment Analysis,” 88 Harvard Law Review 1482 (1975). [argues for “categories” approach versus “balancing” approach]

Dorsen, Norman, “Flag Desecration in Courts, Congress, and Country,” 17 T.M. Cooley Law Review 417 (Michaelmas Term 2000). [argues against flag amendment]

Gey, Stephen G. “This is Not a Flag: The Aesthetics of Desecration,” 1990 Wisconsin Law Review 1549 (1990). [argues all flag desecration is protected since any law would be content-biased since the flag is pure symbol and any interaction with it therefore is expressive ]

Goldstein, Robert Justin. “The Great 1989-1990 Flag Flap: An Historical, Political, and Legal Analysis,” 45 University of Miami Law Review 19 (1990). [argues that flag burning is a constitutionally permissible form of peaceful political dissent]

Hart, W.O. “The Story of the American Flag,” 58 Am. L. Rev. 161 (1924).

Herbert, Gregory. “Note: Waiving Rights and Burning Flags: The Search for a Valid State Interest in Flag Protection,” 25 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 591 (1990). [argues that all flag laws are unconstitutional]

Rosenblatt, Albert M. “Flag Desecration Statutes: History and Analysis,” 1972 Washington University Law Quarterly 193 (1972). [survey of cases, issues]

Stone, Geoffrey R. “Flag Burning and the Constitution,” 75 Iowa Law Review 111 (1989). [argues that a constitutional flag statute is possible].

Taylor, R. Neil. “Case Note: The Protection of Flag-Burning as Symbolic Speech and the Congressional Attempt to Overturn the Decision: Texas v. Johnson, 109 S. Ct. 2533 (1989),” 58 University of Cincinnati Law Review 1477 (1990). [detailed review of major arguments and precedents]

Other:

The State of the First Amendment in Wisconsin (2004), Franklin, T.E., et.al., UW-Stout Department of Psychology, Menomonie, WI 54751.

8 Journal of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 at 464 (W. Ford ed. 1907).

Citizen’s Flag Alliance, http://www.cfa-inc.org/

People for the American Way, http://www.pfaw.org/

Michael Welch, “Social Movements and Political Protest: Exploring Flag Desecration in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s,” Social Pathology (Dec 1999), Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 167-187.