On April 21, 1969, the Supreme Court ruled in Street v. New York that states cannot make it a crime to verbally insult the American flag.
Sidney Street burned a 48-star flag after hearing news of the attempted murder of civil rights leader James Meredith. When the police approached him, Street said, “Yes; that is my flag; I burned it. If they let that happen to Meredith, we don’t need an American flag.” As a result, he was arrested for defiling and “[casting] contempt upon” the flag.
To determine whether the speech was constitutional, the court evaluated whether the government had an interest in prohibiting Street from inciting others to criminality, encouraging a breach of the peace, offending passersby or disrespecting the national emblem. Determining that free speech rights outweigh these public interests, the Supreme Court reversed the conviction because it was at least partially based on Street’s verbal insults. The court did not answer the question of the constitutionality of burning flags for another 20 years.
