Home > Flag desecration

Some countries have laws forbidding specific methods of defacement (such as burning) or forbidding particular uses considered improper (such as use for commercial purposes). Often such laws only apply to the country's own flag.

1 Forms

Flags can be destroyed by burning or ripping. They can also be defaced, such as with slogans, fecal matter, or dirt. More generally, flags can be treated disrespectfully, being walked upon, spat upon, or dragged through the dirt. Flags may simply be used improperly: such as being hung upside down or reversed. Finally, flags may be "disrespected", for example by casting scorn upon it, refusing to salute it, and so forth.

Such actions are undertaken for a variety of reasons:

• Protest against a country's foreign policy.
• Distancing oneself from the foreign policy of one's home country.
• Hatred against the inhabitants of a country, which may be linked to xenophobia or racism.
• Protest at the very laws prohibiting the actions in question.

Flags may also be burnt, in some cultures, as a respectful way of disposing of a flag that is no longer of use, or has been worn out or defaced. In such cultures, this is not considered defacement or desecration of the flag.

2 The United States

Internationally, the American flag is a frequent target of maltreatment (of all kinds), particularly in the Middle East. In most cases, anger at US foreign policy or Anti-Americanism are the reasons for such acts.

Within the US, the issue is typically discussed as flag burning, as burning is the most commonly objected-to defacement of the flag. Burning (or otherwise defacing) the flag is an act of protected speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution, according to the Supreme Court's ruling in the 1989 flag-burning case, Texas v. Johnson. Though prohibitions on public fires in general are permissible, for example, laws that discriminate on the expressive content of the act of flag burning are not.

Since the Supreme Court's decision, there have been many proposals in Congress to amend the Constitution to prohibit flag burning, but none have been successful. A federal law to that effect (not a Constitutional amendment) did pass, but the Supreme Court invalidated it in United States v. EichmanUnited States v. Eichman 496 U. 310 ( 1990) was a United States Supreme Court case that invalidated a federal law against flag desecration as violative of free speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution. It was argued together with the case Unit, under the same reasoning (and the same voting divisions among the justices) as Texas v. Johnson.

The U.S. Flag Act lays down clear rules on the use and misuse of the flag, stating for example: "No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform". The law does allow for the flag to be worn as a patch if is properly respected. Similarly, the act states the flag "should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper". In recent years, this statute has been all but ignored.

The ritualized burning of the American flag is considered an appropriate way to dispose of a damaged or soiled flag. According to The Flag Burning Page , "the American Legion and Boy Scouts burn thousands of flags every year in respectful retirement ceremonies".