Gregory Lee Johnson

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Gregory Lee Johnson
Gregory Lee Johnson.png
Johnson c. 1989
Born1956 (age 67–68)
Richmond, Indiana, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJoey
Occupation Activist
Known forDefendant in Texas v. Johnson (1989)
Political party Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Gregory Lee "Joey" Johnson (born 1956) is an American political activist, known for his advocacy of flag desecration. [1] [2] His burning of the flag of the United States in a political demonstration during the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, led to his role as defendant in the landmark United States Supreme Court case Texas v. Johnson (1989). [3]

Contents

Early life, military service and early activism

Johnson was born in Richmond, Indiana. His father spent several years of Gregory's childhood in prison. His mother, Sally, was a supporter of the civil rights movement who married a staff sergeant in the United States Army. Johnson grew up in a racially mixed, low-income neighborhood of Richmond. In 1969, he moved with his family to an American military base in West Germany, where he was influenced by growing opposition to the Vietnam War among Vietnam War draftees. [4]

His family returned to the United States in 1971. In 1973, he dropped out of high school and joined the United States Merchant Marine, which took him to Panama and Mexico, where he observed American sociopolitical and economic influence. After moving to Tampa, Florida in 1976, he joined the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, the youth arm of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. [4]

At the time of his arrest for flag desecration in Dallas, Johnson was a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, and had traveled to Dallas to protest at the 1984 Republican National Convention. [5] [6]

Role as defendant in Texas v. Johnson

On 22 August 1984, Johnson participated in a political demonstration called the "Republican War Chest Tour" in Dallas, Texas to protest the policies of several Dallas-area businesses and of the Ronald Reagan presidential administration. [7] [8] The demonstration was timed to coincide with the 1984 Republican National Convention being held in downtown Dallas. During the demonstration, approximately one hundred protesters marched in the streets, chanted slogans, and staged anti-nuclear weapons and anti-war die-ins at various corporate offices. Some protesters vandalized businesses by spray-painting building walls and knocking over potted plants and ashtrays. [4] [7] Johnson did not take part in the vandalism, but took an American flag that had been seized from a flagpole at one of the buildings by another protester.

At the culmination of the protest outside Dallas City Hall, Johnson poured kerosene on the flag and set it on fire. While the flag burned, he chanted political slogans, including "Reagan, Mondale, which will it be? Either one means World War III;" "Ronald Reagan, killer of the hour, Perfect example of U.S. power;" and "red, white and blue, we spit on you, you stand for plunder, you will go under." [9] Some witnesses testified that they were seriously offended. No one was hurt or threatened with injury during the protest.

Johnson was not the only protester to be charged with a crime. Other charges included: vandalism, disorderly conduct, and a class C misdemeanor with a two hundred dollar fine, and of using abusive and obscene language in a public place causing a crowd to form. [8] He was convicted of the desecration of a venerated object in violation of Texas Penal Code Annotated § 42.11(a)(3), [10] sentenced to one year in prison, and fined $2,000.

Johnson appealed his conviction to the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas, but lost. He next petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review the decision. That court overturned his conviction, saying that the State of Texas could not punish Johnson for burning the flag because the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects such activity as symbolic speech. The court also concluded that the flag burning in this case did not cause or threaten to cause a breach of the peace. [7]

The State of Texas asked the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case. Attorneys David D. Cole and radical civil rights activist William Kunstler acted as Johnson's lawyers. In 1989, the Supreme Court handed down a controversial 5–4 decision in favor of Gregory Johnson, holding that Johnson's conviction for flag desecration was inconsistent with the First Amendment. The Court's decision invalidated laws against flag desecration in force in forty-eight of the fifty states.

Second flag burning

In response to the Supreme Court decision in Texas v. Johnson, the United States Congress enacted legislation outlawing the desecration of the flag, which then-President George H. W. Bush allowed to pass into law without his signature. The Flag Protection Act of 1989 went into effect at midnight on 28 October 1989.

On 30 October, Gregory Johnson joined Shawn Eichman, David Blalock, and Scott Tyler on the steps of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., where they set fire to three American flags while chanting "burn, baby, burn." The four protesters were arrested and spent the night in jail. The next day, Eichman, Blalock, and Tyler were charged with violating the Flag Protection Act of 1989, demonstrating without a permit, and disorderly conduct. [11] [12] However, the United States Attorney's Office declined to file charges against Johnson, claiming that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him. Johnson declared that the government's decision not to charge him was an "act of cowardice" and a "miscarriage of justice," and stated that he was outraged. [13]

The consolidated cases of Shawn Eichman, David Blalock, and Scott Tyler eventually reached the Supreme Court with Eichman as the named respondent in United States v. Eichman (1990), which was argued together with the case United States v. Haggerty (1990). Mark Haggerty, Jennifer Campbell, Darius Strong and Carlos Garza were also charged with having violated the Flag Protection Act of 1989 outside a Seattle, Washington post office just a few minutes after the law went into effect on 28 October. [14] The Supreme Court handed down its decision on United States v. Eichman on 11 June 1990, ruling 5–4 in favor of Eichman, Haggerty, and the other respondents, and striking down the Flag Protection Act of 1989. [15]

The failed federal legislation triggered many unsuccessful efforts to pass an amendment to the United States Constitution banning flag desecration, including one attempt during the two weeks in October 1989 between the passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989 and its taking effect, [16] and another just eleven days after the United States v. Eichman ruling. [17] The most recent attempt to send a flag desecration amendment to the states for ratification failed in the United States Senate by one vote on 27 June 2006. [18]

Later years

Johnson lived in Houston for four years after his arrest for flag desecration, during which he worked in a warehouse while his attorneys worked on his case. [4] [19] He was described by a contemporaneous Houston activist, Geov Parrish, as an "obnoxious young transplanted New Yorker" who would show up at "every local demonstration with a bloody, severed pig's head (tendrils still trailing along) that he'd drag along on a leash and collar while shouting anti-imperialist slogans; the pig, of course, was the United States." [20]

Afterwards, Johnson moved to the South Bronx in New York City, then to San Francisco [21] and Los Angeles, where he remained active with the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, in time becoming the Youth Brigade's national spokesperson. He continued to speak out against legislation targeting flag desecration. [22] He also became a Los Angeles organizer for the October 22 Coalition against police brutality [23] and for Not in Our Name, an antiwar foreign policy organization. [24] [25]

Throughout 2009, Johnson, who during his Supreme Court case was a client of American civil rights attorney William Kunstler, [26] promoted the film William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe , a documentary that premiered at the 25th Sundance Film Festival. [27] [28]

On 14 October 2011, Johnson was arrested after he and two others chained themselves to the front doors of the headquarters of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Sacramento, California. The three were protesting in support of a hunger strike being conducted by Pelican Bay State Prison inmates. [1] [29] [30]

On 20 June 2016, Johnson and Revolution Club members were arrested after burning the United States flag at the 2016 Republican National Convention, but the charges were unclear. [31] In June 2019, the City of Cleveland agreed to pay Johnson $225,000 because his 2016 arrest had been determined to have violated his free speech rights. [32]

See also

Related Research Articles

United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990), was a United States Supreme Court case that by a 5–4 decision invalidated a federal law against flag desecration as a violation of free speech under the First Amendment. It was argued together with the case United States v. Haggerty. It built on the opinion handed down in the Court's decision the prior year in Texas v. Johnson (1989), which invalidated on First Amendment grounds a Texas state statute banning flag burning.

The Flag Desecration Amendment is a proposed addition to the Constitution of the United States that would allow the U.S. Congress to prohibit by statute and provide punishment for the physical "desecration" of the flag of the United States. The concept of flag desecration continues to provoke a heated debate over protecting a national symbol, preserving free speech, and upholding the liberty said to be represented by that national symbol. While the proposal passed by the two-thirds majority required in the House of Representatives several times, in each instance it failed to attain the same required super-majority in the Senate, or was never voted upon in the Senate at all.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag desecration</span> Method of protest or insult

Flag desecration is the desecration of a flag, violation of flag protocol, or various acts that intentionally destroy, damage, or mutilate a flag in public. In the case of a national flag, such action is often intended to make a political point against a country or its policies. Some countries have laws against methods of destruction or forbidding particular uses ; such laws may distinguish between the desecration of the country's own national flag and the desecration of flags of other countries. Some countries have also banned the desecration of all types of flags from inside the country to other country flags.

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that burning the Flag of the United States was protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as doing so counts as symbolic speech and political speech.

Symbolic speech is a legal term in United States law used to describe actions that purposefully and discernibly convey a particular message or statement to those viewing it. Symbolic speech is recognized as being protected under the First Amendment as a form of speech, but this is not expressly written as such in the document. One possible explanation as to why the Framers did not address this issue in the Bill of Rights is because the primary forms for both political debate and protest in their time were verbal expression and published word, and they may have been unaware of the possibility of future people using non-verbal expression. Symbolic speech is distinguished from pure speech, which is the communication of ideas through spoken or written words or through conduct limited in form to that necessary to convey the idea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Flag Code</span> American federal law establishing advisory rules for display and care of the American flag

The United States Flag Code establishes advisory rules for display and care of the national flag of the United States of America. It is part of Chapter 1 of Title 4 of the United States Code. Although this is a U.S. federal law, the code is not mandatory: it uses non-binding language like "should" and "custom" throughout and does not prescribe any penalties for failure to follow the guidelines. It was "not intended to prescribe conduct" and was written to "codify various existing rules and customs."

United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, ruling that a criminal prohibition against burning a draft card did not violate the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. Though the court recognized that O'Brien's conduct was expressive as a protest against the Vietnam War, it considered the law justified by a significant government interest unrelated to the suppression of speech and was tailored towards that end.

The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade (RCYB) was the former youth group of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984 Republican National Convention</span> Political convention of the Republican Party

The 1984 Republican National Convention convened on August 20 to August 23, 1984, at Dallas Convention Center in downtown Dallas, Texas. The convention nominated President Ronald W. Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush for reelection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag Protection Act</span> American law to prevent desecration of the national flag

Reacting to protests during the Vietnam War era, the United States 90th Congress enacted Public Law 90-381, later codified as 18 U.S.C. 700, et. seq., and better known as the Flag Protection Act of 1968. It was an expansion to nationwide applicability of a 1947 law previously restricted only to the District of Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dread Scott</span> American artist (born 1965)

Scott Tyler, known professionally as Dread Scott, is an American artist whose works, often participatory in nature, focus on the experience of African Americans in the contemporary United States. His first major work, What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag (1989), was at the center of a controversy regarding whether his piece resulted in desecration of the American flag. Scott would later be one of the defendants in United States v. Eichman, a Supreme Court case in which it was eventually decided that federal laws banning flag desecration were unconstitutional.

The following is a timeline of the flag of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag Protection Act of 2005</span> Act proposed in US in 2005

The Flag Protection Act of 2005 was a proposed United States federal law introduced in the United States Senate at the 109th United States Congress on October 24, 2005, by Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and co-sponsored by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). Later co-sponsors included Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Thomas Carper (D-Del.).

Halter v. Nebraska, 205 U.S. 34 (1907), was a United States Supreme Court case involving a Nebraska statute that prevented and punished desecration of the flag of the United States and prohibited the sale of articles upon which there is a representation of the flag for advertising purposes. Halter was charged under this law for printing the flag on the label of a bottle of beer, for which he was fined $50 plus the costs of the prosecution. The court upheld the law.

Street v. New York, 394 U.S. 576 (1969), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a New York state law making it a crime "publicly [to] mutilate, deface, defile, or defy, trample upon, or cast contempt upon either by words or act [any flag of the United States]" was, in part, unconstitutional because it prohibited speech against the flag. The Court left for a later day the question of whether it is constitutional or unconstitutional to prohibit, without reference to the utterance of words, the burning of the flag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Money burning</span> Deliberate burning of money for effect

Money burning or burning money is the purposeful act of destroying money. In the prototypical example, banknotes are destroyed by setting them on fire. Burning money decreases the wealth of the owner without directly enriching any particular party. It also reduces the money supply and slows down the inflation rate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draft-card burning</span> Vietnam War draft protests, 1964–1973

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John Mars, known as 2 Black 2 Strong, is an American rapper who recorded in the early 1990s. He is perhaps best known for his song "Burn Baby Burn", about the right to burn the American flag. He led a crew of rappers, MMG, which appeared on many of his tracks.

Richard Davies Parker is an American legal scholar who serves as the Paul W. Williams Professor of Criminal Justice at Harvard Law School, where he has taught constitutional law and criminal law since 1974. He also serves as chairman of the Citizens Flag Alliance, an American nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing a constitutional amendment that would protect the American flag against acts of physical desecration.

Spence v. Washington, 418 U.S. 405 (1974), was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with non-verbal free speech and its protections under the First Amendment. The Court, in a per curiam decision, ruled that a Washington state law that banned the display of the American flag adorned with additional decorations was unconstitutional as it violated protected speech. The case established the Spence test that has been used by the judicial system to determine when non-verbal speech may be sufficiently expressive for First Amendment protections.

References

  1. 1 2 Everest, Larry (23 October 2011). "Nonviolent Civil Disobedience in Sacramento: Protesting the Torture of Prisoners". Revolution (248). Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  2. ↑ Johnson, Gregory (24 July 2005). "Flag Amendment and the Assault on Political Dissent". Revolution (9). Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  3. ↑ "Texas v. Johnson (1989)". The First Amendment Library. First Amendment Center. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Grogan, David; Demaret, Kent; Stewart, Bob (10 July 1989). "Unimpressed by the Freedom to Burn Old Glory, Joey Johnson Still Wants a Revolution". People . 32 (2): 98. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  5. ↑ Harlan, Christi (25 August 1984). "City to Close Tent City 2 Days Early". The Dallas Morning News .
  6. ↑ Coffey, Robyn (March 2006). "Desecrating the Flag: The flag amendment, free speech and provocation using stars and bars". F Newsmagazine. University of Chicago . Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 "Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989)". FindLaw . Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  8. 1 2 Brennan Jr., William J. (Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States) (21 June 1989). "Opinion of the Court". Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute . Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  9. ↑ Rehnquist, William H. (Chief Justice of the United States) (21 June 1989). "Dissenting opinion". Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute . Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  10. ↑ "Footnote #1 (Texas Penal Code Annotated § 42.09(a)(3))". Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). FindLaw. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  11. ↑ "'Burn, baby, burn': Four defy desecration law, set fire to U.S. flag at Capitol". Houston Chronicle . Associated Press. 31 October 1989. pp. A3. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  12. ↑ Ross, Michael (31 October 1989). "Protesters Burn U.S. Flags at Capitol; 4 Are Arrested". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  13. ↑ Yost, Pete (1 November 1989). "Left out and angry over action". The Free Lance-Star . Associated Press. p. 8. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  14. ↑ "Judge Rules Flag Protection Act Unconstitutional". Los Angeles Times . Associated Press. 22 February 1990. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  15. ↑ Greenhouse, Linda (12 June 1990). "Supreme Court Voids Flag Law; Stage Set for Amendment Battle". The New York Times . Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  16. ↑ Toner, Robin (20 October 1989). "Senate Rejects Amendment Outlawing Flag Desecration". The New York Times . pp. A1, A16. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  17. ↑ Holmes, Steven A. (22 June 1990). "Amendment to Bar Flag Desecration Fails in the House". The New York Times . pp. A1. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  18. ↑ Hulse, Carl (28 June 2006). "Flag Amendment Narrowly Fails in Senate Vote". The New York Times . pp. A1, A16. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  19. ↑ Wiessler, Judy (22 June 1989). "High court sanctions flag-burning". Houston Chronicle . pp. A1, A2. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  20. ↑ Parrish, Geov (28 June 2006). "Me and Joey". Seattle Weekly . Archived from the original on 16 December 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  21. ↑ Slonaker, Larry (5 May 1991). "Die-Hard Communists Find Haven at Berkeley Bookstore". San Jose Mercury News . Knight-Ridder Newspapers. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  22. ↑ "Notorious Flagburner Joey Johnson Denounces Fascist Flag Amendment". The Flag Burning Page. Warren S. Apel. 4 July 1995. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  23. ↑ Kim, Philip; Simpson, Monique (19 November 2000). "LAPD targeted in legal action". Daily Bruin . University of California, Los Angeles . Retrieved 16 December 2011.[ permanent dead link ]
  24. ↑ Lagos, Marisa (10 October 2002). "War on Iraq: Not in Their Name". Daily Nexus . University of California, Santa Barbara . Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  25. ↑ "Press Conference 8/16/04". San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay). 16 August 2004. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  26. ↑ "Disturbing the Universe: Cases Featured in the Film". POV (TV series). 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  27. ↑ "Join Us as Disturbing the Universe Tours the Country!". 26 November 2009. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  28. ↑ "Reason.tv at Sundance: The Most Famous Flag Burner of All Time!". reason.tv (Reason Foundation). 26 January 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  29. ↑ "Coalition Opposes Retaliation on Strikers & Supporters". Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity. 25 October 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  30. ↑ Revolution Books (15 October 2011). "California prisoners hunger strike - civil disobedience at CDCR Sacramento 10-14-11". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  31. ↑ Norton, Ben (21 July 2016). "Man who fought to make flag-burning legal arrested after flag-burning at RNC". Salon . Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  32. ↑ "Cleveland to pay $225,000 to 2016 RNC protester arrested during flag burning". 11 June 2019.
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