Gregory Lee Johnson took part in peaceful, yet forceful, demonstration against the Reagan administration policies during the Republican National Convention. The most violent act of the day there came not against any person, but against an object: Johnson doused the American flag in kerosene and lit it on fire. The act so outraged nearby witnesses that Johnson was arrested and convicted of desecrating a venerated object, a crime that carried for him a one-year prison term and a fine of $2,000. Johnson took his appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, which only narrowly ruled in his favor.

On this day, June 21, in 1989 the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, that burning the American flag, while objectionable, was a protected freedom under the first amendment.

The Court acknowledged its long history of recognizing political actions as protected by the free speech amendment, and said Johnson’s burning fell into category. In a statement echoed by the recent rulings on the Westboro Baptist Church protests at servicemember funerals, the justices declared “if there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”