Gourt Home::Gourt :: United States v. Eichman
| United States v. Eichman | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argued May 14, 1990 Decided June 11, 1990 | ||||||||
| Full case name: | ''United States v. Shawn Eichman |
| Citations: | 496 U.S. 310 |
| Prior history: | Unknown |
| Subsequent history: | Unknown |
| Chief Justice William Rehnquist |
| Associate Justices William J. Brennan, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy |
| Majority by: Brennan |
| Joined by: Marshall, Blackmun, Scalia, Kennedy |
| Dissent by: Stevens |
| Joined by: Rehnquist, White, O'Connor |
The case involved a challenge to the 1989 Flag Protection Act, which forbade the burning or other desecration of the American flag, while allowing for burning as a means of proper disposal of worn or soiled flags. The Act was passed in response to the Court's controversial 1989 decision in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), which upheld flag burning as an act of protected speech under the First Amendment.
The defendant in United States vs. Eichman, Shawn Eichman, had burned an American flag on the steps of the United States Capitol to protest American foreign and domestic policy. Mark Haggerty, in the jointly decided case, had burned a flag in Seattle, Washington.
In a 5-4 decision (with voting lines identical to the result in Texas vs. Johnson), the Court reaffirmed Johnson and struck down the law against flag burning. Brennan stated in the Court's opinion that "Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so revered, and worth revering."
See also
List of United States Supreme Court cases
External links
- US vs. Eichman
- First Amendment Library entry on Eichman v. United States
- Street v. New York
- Texas v. Johnson
1990 in law | United States Supreme Court cases | United States free speech case law | United States First Amendment case law
"United States v. Eichman"