Page "First Amendment to the United States Constitution" Paragraph 32

The divisive issue of flag desecration as a form of protest first came before the Supreme Court in Street v. New York,.

In response to hearing an erroneous report of the murder of James Meredith, Sidney Street burned a 48-star U. S. flag.

When questioned by the police he responded: " Yes ; that is my flag ; I burned it.

If they let that happen to Meredith, we don't need an American flag.

" Street was arrested and charged with a New York state law making it a crime " publicly mutilate, deface, defile, or defy, trample upon, or cast contempt upon either by words or act flag of the United States.

" Street appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing the law was " overbroad, both on its face and as applied ," that the language was " vague and imprecise " and did not " clearly define the conduct which it forbids ", and that it unconstitutionally punished the destruction of an American flag, an act which Street contended " constitute expression protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

" In a 5 – 4 decision, the Court, relying on Stromberg v. California,, found that because the provision of the New York law criminalizing " words " against the flag was unconstitutional, and the trial did not sufficiently demonstrate that he was convicted solely under the provisions not yet deemed unconstitutional, the conviction was unconstitutional.

The Court, however, " resist the pulls to decide the constitutional issues involved in this case on a broader basis " and left the constitutionality of flag-burning unaddressed.