Flag Burning Research Paper

1078 Words3 Pages

What is the controversy with the flag burning right? Well flag burning, for most people, happens to be a huge issue seeing as though it is repulsive or anti abolitionist in a certain state of mind. These people constantly ask the question, can flag burning be punishable by law? Flag burning cannot be punishable by law, nor should it be, “no matter how uncomfortable they make others feel or how much people disagree the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed that the right to desecrate the flag is included in the Constitution’s protection of speech (Flag).” Desecration and Flag Burning are forms of symbolic speech. What is symbolic speech? you may ask, well “symbolic speech is seen as a representation of one's beliefs or messages in the …show more content…

Well flag burning is definitively the first amendment making any citizen of the United States of America have the ability to express their right. Another question that may come to mind is what is the significance of the flag burning right ? Well flag burning serves a major role in symbolic speech which gives citizens the ability to represent themselves, their feeling, and their opinions, which gives significance to the freedom of speech part of the first amendment. The foundation of everything in our society is freedom of speech. Any form of marketing is freedom of speech because it represents an opinion about a product that a company is very opinionated about. T Shirts are also freedom of speech because t shirts are a representation of an opinionated topic. For example a band t shirt a website t shirt even a flag which, actually, wearing a flag is desecration of the flag because it took the flag from the original form it was meant to be used as. The flag desecration right has the impact of people being able to represent their country, their opinion and since the United States of America was built on the concept of free speech it would be against the original motive of this country. The real disgrace is limiting what people can do in a free country by setting rules to a free concept. “You should not use the American flag as an article of clothing. However, in 1976 an amendment was made that allowed uniforms for military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic groups to use a flag patch or pin near the left side, closer the heart.” a rule that comes from the flag code which is used frequently used by the Veterans of Foreign Wars which is limiting a free concept that anyone can abide

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