President Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to prosecute people who burn the American flag. The order also allows for the government to revoke immigration privileges to non-citizens who burn the flag. The White House says that this will be punishable by up to 1 year in prison but the executive order doesn’t say that. The Supreme Court has already ruled—twice—that flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment. In Texas v. Johnson (1989) and United States v. Eichman (1990), the Court struck down both state and federal flag protection laws, affirming that even offensive symbolic acts are protected political expression under the First Amendment of the Constitution. This new decree is a direct assault on free speech. Imagine prosecuting a grieving mother who burns a flag after her son was killed in a pointless forever war. The government would not be punishing violence, but anguish—turning sorrow into a criminal act. We are not in favor of flag burning but if the pandemic taught us anything, it was that we have to defend the speech we don’t like. Free speech means protecting the offensive too — or as Lenny Bruce put it: “If you can’t say ‘fuck,’ you can’t say ‘Fuck the government.’” The post Flag Burning Is Protected Speech appeared first on Redacted.