Donnie O’Sullivan, writing for CNN, reports on the recent controversy surrounding Bryton Mellot, a 22-year old Illinois resident who burned an American flag.
That decision, Texas v. Johnson, declared flag-burning a form of protected “symbolic speech.” Further cases, such as United States v. Eichman, have reinforced this right to burn the flag symbolically.
In a truly free society, even speech which is profoundly disagreeable to the majority of people must be protected in order to properly preserve freedom of speech for all.