Texas V Johnson Flag Analysis

1391 Words6 Pages
In the Supreme Court case Texas v Johnson, Johnson was on trial for burning a flag during a protest at the National Republican Convention in 1984. He burned the flag to protest the Reagan administration’s policies, and was charged with desecrating a revered, or deeply respected, object. The Supreme Court decided, based on a majority vote, that Johnson had the right to use the flag as a form of protest, and that this right was protected under the First Amendment. While I agree with Justice Brennan, who wrote the Majority Opinion, and his decision to support Johnson’s First Amendment rights, I believe that the flag’s meaning is not just a symbol of the unity of the United States, as suggested by the minority Justices, but that the flag represents…show more content…
Many people in my family have served in the Armed Forces, and when I brought this case up to them, they immediately assumed I would be on the dissenting side. They felt that the flag should be highly esteemed and cherished because of all of the men, and women, who have served and died under the flag for the good and protection of the United States, regardless of the country’s problematic history. The Armed Forces fight to allow the country to become a better place, not to explicitly carry out the country’s political agenda. My grandfather, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam Conflict, agreed that people had the right to hold their own personal beliefs about the flag. However, he believes that this case is not simply about citizens disrespecting the flag, but that the case is about citizens disrespecting servicemen and servicewomen in the armed forces who place extreme value in the flag. He believes that citizens should respect their fellow citizens who serve in the Armed Forces enough to also respect the view and respect for the flag that is held by the members in Armed Forces. Citizens should also respect the flag’s purpose in the Armed Forces and the United States as a whole. Here, he is equating the flag to the men and women in the Armed Forces, meaning that the flag is what is protecting the citizens and…show more content…
For example, consider how Native Americans, African Americans, or Japanese-Americans may feel about the flag. The United States government evacuated countless Native American communities and relocated them to small, overcrowded reservations. The United States government also promoted the mass slaughter of the animals that the Native Americans typically hunted and consumed, effectively starving most populations. The United States also unashamedly took part in the slave trade, forcing millions of Africans to come to the United States and become slaves. Even after slavery ended, most citizens and leaders in the country believed that African Americans were inferior and made laws specifically to repress African American rights. Even more recently, after the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, the United States government placed many Japanese-Americans into internment camps where they were often malnourished and mistreated. Undoubtedly, most citizens within these groups must have a complex view of the flag that isn’t positive or unifying. How can the American government expect the Native American peoples, African Americans, or the Japanese-Americans to respect the American flag and its hypocritical ideals? The answer should obviously be that the government cannot, the ideals being hypocritical due to the United States taking control over these groups more extremely than Great Britain ever had

More about Texas V Johnson Flag Analysis

Open Document