Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990 TAG: 9003062049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short
Judge June Green, ruling in federal district court here on Monday, threw out the government's case against three people who burned a flag on the steps of the Capitol to protest the law, which Congress enacted last year after the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning was a protected form of free expression.
She rejected arguments from Congress and the Justice Department that the law does not violate the First Amendment.
After the first ruling, by a judge in Seattle, the Justice Department announced that it would appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
The law, the Flag Protection Act of 1989, provides for an expedited appeal to the Supreme Court, bypassing federal appellate courts.
Judge Green said she was trying "to add weight to the logic of the argument" of the federal judge in the Seattle case, Barbara J. Rothstein, whose reasoning she praised as "eloquent and persuasive."
Judge Green said the three people who burned the flag on the steps of the Capitol building, two days after the law went into effect, "intended to communicate messages of dissent and succeeded dramatically in their attempt."
The lawyer for the Senate had argued that the law was intended not to suppress speech but to preserve the integrity of the flag as a "universal symbol," Judge Green noted. But she added: "The government's true purpose appears more restricted. The government seeks to preserve the flag as a symbol only for those who would not damage or destroy it."
by CNB