--- title: Burning the American Flag: This Is Why It's Legal description: The Supreme Court declared on June 11, 1990, that laws against desecrating the flag are unconstitutional canonical: https://time.com/3907444/flag-supreme-court-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-11T16:00:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:12.501Z article:section: History og:title: Burning the American Flag: This Is Why It's Legal og:description: The Supreme Court ruled on June 11, 1990 og:url: https://time.com/3907444/flag-supreme-court-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49c6f6c4711aaac7/698852e706f2c10c8233a7b5/eichman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Flag Protection Act og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Burning the American Flag: This Is Why It's Legal twitter:description: The Supreme Court ruled on June 11, 1990 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49c6f6c4711aaac7/698852e706f2c10c8233a7b5/eichman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is Why It's Legal to Burn the American Flag > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Protest Erupts Over Flag-Burning Outside Republican Convention [Watch (HLS stream): Protest Erupts Over Flag-Burning Outside Republican Convention](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/caSh5o73.m3u8) (0:28)  _Published 2016-07-20. Mass confusion erupted at a not-so-mass protest Wednesday afternoon outside the Republican National Convention in downtown Cleveland._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 11, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  William Kunstler second from left, discusses the Supreme Court ruling to declare the Flag Protection Act of 1989 unconstitutional at a press conference on June 11, 1990 in New York, Kunstler and David Cole, second from right, represented Shawn Eichman, right, a defendant in the case, and Joey Johnson, a defendant in a similar case in 1989. William Kunstler second from left, discusses the Supreme Court ruling to declare the Flag Protection Act of 1989 unconstitutional at a press conference on June 11, 1990 in New York, Kunstler and David Cole, second from right, represented Shawn Eichman, right, a defendant in the case, and Joey Johnson, a defendant in a similar case in 1989. Marty Lederhandler—AP Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 11, 2015 4:00 PM UTC It was shortly before the Fourth of July in 1989—two centuries after the Constitution of the United States took effect—when the Supreme Court declared that the government could not stop citizens from desecrating the nation’s flag. “The patriotic mind recoils,” TIME’s Walter Isaacson [commented](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-07-03/page/18/) in the weeks that followed the decision. “Reverence for the flag is ingrained in every schoolchild who has quailed at the thought of letting it touch the ground, in every citizen moved by pictures of it being raised at Iwo Jima or planted on the moon, in every veteran who has ever heard taps played at the end of a Memorial Day parade, in every gold-star mother who treasures a neatly folded emblem of her family’s supreme sacrifice.” Yet, he continued, that was precisely the reason why the court, in the case _Texas v. Johnson_, declared that federal and state laws that protect the flag are in violation of free-speech protections. The flag is so revered because it represents the land of the free, and that freedom includes the ability to use or abuse that flag in protest. Almost immediately after the ruling was made, President Bush [proposed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-07-10/page/21/) a solution: a constitutional amendment that would exempt flag-desecration as protected speech. But the legislative branch struck first and [passed ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-08-28/page/76/) the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which made it criminal to desecrate the flag, regardless of motive. Protesters responded quickly by burning flags, in an attempt to get the issue back to the Supreme Court. Almost exactly a year after _Texas v. Johnson_, their wish came true. In _United States v. Eichman_, which was decided exactly 25 years ago, on June 11, 1990, the Supreme Court once again ruled that burning the flag was an example of constitutionally protected free speech. Further attempts to protect the flag with an amendment were batted about in the years that followed, but they never went anywhere. As Isaacson pointed out in returning to the issue the week after the _Eichman_ decision came down, the 1990s fight over flag-burning came at a time when the nation was seemingly less polarized: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Hiding in the Flag](http://time.com/vault/issue/1990-06-25/page/36/) ### See Ruth Bader Ginsburg Grow from Toddler to Supreme Court Justice  August 2, 1935 Childhood photograph of Ruth Bader taken when she was two years old. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  1948 Ruth Bader delivers a sermon as camp Rabbi at the age of 15, at Che-Na-Wah camp in Minerva, N.Y. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  December, 1953 Studio photograph of Ruth Bader, taken in Dec. 1953 when she was a Senior at Cornell University. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Fall, 1954 Martin D. Ginsburg and Ruth Bader Ginsburg taken in the fall while Martin Ginsburg served in the Army, before being drafted, stationed at Artillery Village in Fort Sill, Okla. Martin Ginsburg was drafted into the Army in 1954. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Summer 1958 Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Martin Ginsburg play with their three-year old daughter, Jane, in her bedroom at Martin's parents' home in Rockville Centre, N.Y Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Fall 1980 Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg during her first term as a United States Circuit Judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  December, 1980 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin Ginsburg, and their children James and Jane in a boat off the shore of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  1972 Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her husband Martin at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Oct. 1, 1993 Informal portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg standing before the mantle in the Justices' Dining Room in Washington. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  August 10, 1993 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. From left to right stand President Bill Clinton, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Martin Ginsburg, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Official portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Steve Petteway—Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States ## Transcript Hey, hey America's burning. Donald Trump says Burn the [ NOISE ] flag. Donald Trump. Move back. Move back. Watch it you're on fire stupid [ NOISE ] Hips are right here. We're burning the flags on my wife. Back off, back. 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