Agenda - 02-20-1979 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Z, �''-„''' B 1 3 5979 stice IP w^DE eAnnu? in ',DiftzF1A_!B �- 01Cl P 0 110e nu: PITTS(Mr,0 NOPTA CAROLINA 27117 February 7, 1.979 Mr, Stewart Barbour Route 4, Box 516 Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 Dear Mr. Barbour: I appreciate your bringing to my attention the flag-burning by the demonstrators on the UNC campus. North Carolina General. Statutes 14-381 clearly seeks tn make it a misdemeanor to burn a United States flag.. As you may recall from the memorandum you gave me, a Frequent defonse to charges of violation of such statutes. is that the dufen- dant's first, amendment rights are overriding. The First Amendment to the United States Co6scitution, Lhe most important provisions of our Bill of Rights , provides in part; "CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW. . . .ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH_" Until 1.974 the Supreme Court settled most flag desecration cases by finding the statutes too vague , However, in the 1974 case of Spence v. Washington, 418 US 405, the United States Supreme Court seemed to resolve the issue as one of symbolic speech. In that case, the defendant had been con- victed under a Washington desecration statute for publicly displaying an American flag with symbols taped across the flag. The Defendant was protesting the United States' in- vasion of Cambodia. The Supreme Court overturned the defen- dant's conviction holding that his desecration of the flag constituted political, symbolic speech, and was therefore protected by the First Amendment, The interest of the State to Protect the flag is over-ridden by First Amendment Rights whoa the flag is used as "Symbolic Speech" in political cx- pressioR.