United States v. Eichman
| United States v. Eichman | |
|---|---|
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| Argued May 14, 1990 Decided June 11, 1990 |
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| Full case name | United States v. Shawn Eichman et al. |
| Citations | 496 U.S. 310 (more) |
| Prior history | Consolidation of United States v. Eichman (D.D.C.), 731 F.Supp. 1123 (1990) and United States v. Haggerty (W.D.Wash), 731 F.Supp. 415 (1990) |
| Holding | |
| The government's interest in preserving the flag as a symbol did not outweigh the individual right to disparage that symbol through expressive conduct. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Brennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Scalia, Kennedy |
| Dissent | Stevens, joined by Rehnquist, White, O'Connor |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. I | |
United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990) was a United States Supreme Court case that invalidated a federal law against flag desecration as violating of free speech under the First Amendment. It was argued together with the case United States v. Haggerty. It built on the opinion handed down in the Court's decision the prior year in Texas v. Johnson (1989), which invalidated on First Amendment grounds a Texas state statute banning flag-burning.
In response to Texas v. Johnson, the 101st Congress passed the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which attempted to circumvent the Johnson ruling by prohibiting mistreatment of the flag without regard to any message being conveyed. On the day that the law took effect, protests were staged around the nation. Demonstrators at two of these incidents, in Seattle and Washington, D.C., were arrested and charged under the revised statute.
In Seattle, flags were burned at a demonstration organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist outside the Capitol Hill post office shortly after midnight, moments after the law took effect. No one was arrested during the demonstration, but four people identified from photographs were later charged with violating the federal Flag Protection Act of 1989: Mark Haggerty, Jennifer Campbell, Darius Strong and Carlos Garza. None of the four were members or supporters of VVAW or the Revolutionary Communist Party. None of the four had been among the organizers of the demonstration or had previously known each other.
In Washington, D.C., Gregory Lee Johnson, the defendant in Texas v. Johnson, staged a protest together with three companions – artists Scott Tyler and Shawn Eichman and Vietnam veteran David Blalock – by burning flags on the steps of the Capitol before a crowd of reporters and photographers. Tyler had recently aroused controversy with a "flag on the floor" exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Eichman was a member of the Coalition Opposed to Censorship in the Arts, and Blalock was a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist. All four were supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party and/or the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade. On the day of the protest they released a statement calling for others to express opposition to "compulsory patriotism" by burning the flag.
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