For this essay I have picked symbolic speech and a seditious speech. All of these speeches come under the First Amendment of freedom of speech. This is controversial and generates lot of arguments sometimes on a national level. So, what is freedom of speech in reality? It states that “the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, or to petition for a governmental ...”
For my symbolic speech I have chosen the Texas Vs Johnson court case. An exceptionally disputable court case in American history was Texas vs. Johnson (1984). In 1984, a man named Gregory Lee Johnson joined the individuals who were protesting against Regan to show their opposition of exploitation of third world nations by the American Government. This act of resistance brought about in the burning of the American flag. Out of around one hundred demonstrators who were included in this protest, Johnson was exclusively charged with the crime of burning the American flag. Johnson was indicted under Texas law, which made the burning of the national or the state flag a crime. Johnson was indicted and sentenced
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I disagree because if someone or some group has a problem with government’s actions against their own or some other country, they shouldn’t start burning flags or other things. Burning a national flag is disrespectful since it is not going to change anything and it will send a wrong signal to others that doing this is a right way to show your opposition to any policy. There are lot of things which we don’t agree with but that should not result in a violence or burning flags and other things. Protect can be done in a peaceful manner and there are other avenues to make your voice and opinion
McCulloch vs Maryland Summary In case of McCulloch vs Maryland is a landmark case that questioned the extent of federal government 's separation of power from state government. A problem arose when the Second Bank of America was established. With the War of 1812 and it’s financial suffering in the past, the government sought to create a bank with the purpose of securing the ability to fund future wars and financial endeavors. Many states were disappointed with this new organization, one of them being Maryland.
Analysis of issues in the motion to suppress. Argument a) The police relied on the information provided by CRI-2 to form the ground for an affidavit seeking to obtain a search warrant. The information from CRI-2 was not credible and could not be independently be relied upon or verified.
Texas v. Johnson (1989) was a Supreme court case deciding whether or not flag burning is supported by “symbolic speech” protected by the first amendment. Gregory Lee Johnson is caught burning the American flag in Dallas, Texas in 1989 to protest Ronald Reagan`s policies. When Johnson had burned the flag during the protest the state of Texas arrested him for desecrating a venerated object. Although Johnson did not hurt or threaten to hurt anyone witnesses and spectators claimed to be seriously offended by seeing Johnson burn the flag. Most of the people in the courtroom were sided with Gregory Johnson supporting the fact that flag burning is considered as symbolic speech which is protected by the first amendment.
“He was arrested and charged with violating a Texas statute that prevented the desecration of a venerated object, including the American flag, if such action were likely to incite anger in others” (“Facts and Case Summary - Texas v. Johnson). Johnson did exactly this, and he angered many witnesses. Congress passed a law similar to the one taking effect in this case. “In 1968, Congress approved the Federal Flag Desecration Law after a Vietnam War protest. The law made it illegal to “knowingly” cast “contempt” upon any flag of the United States by publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling upon it” (Bomboy).
The first case of the day that was heard by the Supreme Court on December 13th was Texas v. Johnson. Gregory Lee Johnson, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, led a protest at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas to protest Ronald Reagan’s reelection. During this protest, Mr. Johnson soaked an American flag in kerosene and proceed to burn it. Mr. Johnson was then arrested and charged for violating the Texas state law that prevented the desecration of a venerated object. The proceedings began with statements from the petitioners who claimed that precedent cases such as US v. O’Brien (1968), which deemed that the burning of draft cards was an invalid form of free speech, and Boos v. Barry (1988), which reinforced
Spring Branch I.S.D. v. Stamos Supreme Court of Texas, 1985 695.S.W.2d 556 [27 Educ. L. Rep. 640] This case examined the constitutionality of the Texas Education Code 21.920 (b) “No Pass, No Play” rule: A student, other than a mentally retarded student, enrolled in a school district in this state shall be suspended from participation in any extracurricular activity sponsored or sanctioned by the school district during the grade reporting period after a grade reporting period in which the student received a grade lower than the equivalent of 70 on a scale of 100 in any academic class. The campus principal may remove this suspension if the class is an identified honors or advanced class. A student may not be suspended under this subsection
It is clear to see that flag burning causes tension, good tension as MLK would call it, that causes attention to be drawn to a topic and forces people to acknowledge the problem. Destroying the American flag is a powerful method of protest that says “This flag is useless because America is not what it is supposed to stand
Introduction Since its independence in 1836, Texas has had several constitutions all of which were formulated from time to time based on Texas political situation throughout its history (Maxwell et al., 2014). The Texas constitution is merely a document that provides a scope for good governance by separating and limiting the powers of each arm of the government. It does so by elaborating the function and structure of the Texan government. More importantly, the current constitution is the most notable one; first of all because it’s considered as one of the oldest constitutions in the U.S. Additionally, it’s also considered to be one of the longest documents as it has 17 articles (Coleman, 2018).
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech”. Some people in today’s time would argue the first amendment is one of the most important listed in the Bill of Rights. Many forms of speech are protected by the first amendment that one wouldn’t think would be such as flag burning and “adult videos”. Over the years there have been many different court cases that have debated and fought the forms of speech that are protected. Many people in society treat speech differently and this is given in the United States because there are such diverse groups throughout the nation.
The law in Texas at the time banned flag burnings. He was convicted, and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court. We ruled that Johnson’s right to free speech had been violated. He was expressing symbolic speech. We ruled that even though an opinion is unpopular, doesn’t mean we have the right to restrict his freedom of
State vs. Mayfield Trial On December 27th, 1989, State Police Officer Edward Mayfield pulled over Donna Nugent to a shady area where he strangled her and threw her body off of a bridge. We don’t know why he pulled her over. He then proceeded to strangle her with a rope. I believe State Police Officer Edward Mayfield is guilty of murder in the first degree because he had and hid the murder weapon, pulling over specifically blonde women, and he changed the activity log.
Introductory paragraph “The flag is one of the most recognizable symbol of the United States.” During the case of Johnson vs. Texas, I believe that Johnson was exercising his rights to free speech but I truly think that he should have done it somewhere else then a public square, someone could have gotten hurt by the flames of the burning flag, or Johnson could have gotten hurt because he was burning the flag around people who love the United States flag. I agree with the fact that Johnson was sentenced to 1 year in jail, he burned the Flag in Texas and in Texas they have a desecration law of violating the flag. From my own point of view, I think Johnson wasn’t exercising his rights to free speech but, he did it in the most absolutely
Smolla writes about the First Amendment in his essay, "Speech Overview". He discusses what freedom of speech is, why Americans hold the First Amendment in such high regard, and how it can be conflicting to many American's "social instincts". The main idea that Smolla is arguing is that Americans embrace freedom of speech and individuality, even though it may cause conflict. He recognizes that some limitations must exist, but the freedom to express our thoughts is the American way. Smolla points out that many controversial items are approved due to the first amendment, even though they conflict with patriotism.
Cornell University stated in an article, “Johnson was convicted of desertion of a venerated object in violation of Texas statute.” Johnson's actions were protected by the First Amendment so he was not sent to prison as stated in the United States Supreme Court case Texas v Johnson. His actions against the flag should have been more severe. Since Johnson’s actions were not threatening the branches of peace, there was no threat in the moment. “... and since the
Freedom of Speech Freedom of speech is the freedom all people have, to express what they consider and express any opinions. It is an ability to express our opinions freely without being punished or censored. All people throughout the world are entitled and must have right to freedom of speech. However, how much do we know about freedom of speech: when did it occur? Does every countries have it?