Why Was Texas Vs Johnson Important

Texas v. Johnson was a major First Amendment court case. This case didn’t flip the world around but it made an impact. The case was about a man that had his rights violated when he did something that seemed illegal. This case was very important to the First Amendment law because Texas tried to say he was doing an illegal action but he was protected. The aspect of the First Amendment during this case was Freedom of Speech. There are many stakes when it comes to very important cases that could change a person’s life forever. The individual right at stake was his freedom of speech. His rights and freedoms were tampered with which led to this being a major court case. The public’s good could’ve been at stake by being injured due to his action

Johnson went through a couple of courts before it hit the Supreme Court. It started at the Intermediate Court of Appeals after he was arrested and fined. Then it moved up to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because he filed for review. When it got to this point his conviction was removed and the information was ordered to be dismissed. The Judge of that Court found that his action was constitutional because it was a type of symbolic speech. When he argued that it was freedom of speech the highest court, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. When the Supreme Court heard the case they made the same decision as the lower courts. The decision ended up being 5-4 Johnson. Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Scalia, and Kennedy ruled that Gregory Lee Johnson was protected under the first amendment. They felt Johnson was protected because he has the right of freedom of speech and the act of expressive conduct. A major factor, in this case, was his expressions. Many people during this case took offense to Johnson’s action but none of the audience’s opinion

Johnson was about a protester that marched with a lot of other protesters during the Republican National Convention in Dallas. When he got to the city hall he took out an American Flag and set it on fire because he was against Regan’s policies. He was arrested and convicted, when through a couple of different courts and won in the Supreme Court 5-4 in 1989. The case impacted the country severely. It impacted the country because it showed how expressive speech is very important. The major social change is after the case, they introduced the Flag Protection Act. This act died off because of the ruling in Texas v. Johnson of expressive speech. An argument from one of the Supreme Court cases according to Justice Brennan “ Johnson was not, we add, prosecuted for the expression of just any idea; he was prosecuted for his expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of this country, expression situated at the core of our First Amendment values.” This explains that he wasn’t convicted for just any idea he was convicted because he saw a problem in Regan’s policies so he took a stand and he was protected under the first amendment. This quote explains exactly why Johnson won this case. The majority of the case argued it was protected by the First Amendment. In my opinion, even though it is protected under expressive conduct I feel it is wrong to take it out on a symbol of unity, the American Flag. Put aside the fact that people do it to get their point across but their