How the Supreme Court has ruled on flag-burning laws

President Donald Trump renewed the political fight against the burning of the American flag Monday, signing an executive order that cracks down on the act. 

The legality of desecrating the American flag has been challenged several times over the last few decades, with the Supreme Court repeatedly ruling in favor of free speech. 

Here’s a look back: 

Trump flag burning executive order

Presently:

President Trump signed an executive order Monday that cracks down on the desecration of the American flag. The order mandates prosecution for acts such as burning the flag, and could revoke visa or other immigration permits and benefits for non-citizens. 

It’s the latest act from the president in his bid to promote patriotism. He personally funded and installed two massive 88-foot-tall American flags on either side of the White House in June.

READ MORE: Trump to crack down on flag burning, desecration with executive order

Is it illegal to burn a US flag?

Big picture view:

Flag burning is an acceptable form of protest and free speech in the U.S., and is protected by the First Amendment. 

Dig deeper:

Most states have their own laws declaring flag desecration illegal that can lead to arrests but for related offenses, such as disturbing the peace, arson or inciting to riot. A handful of Southern states extend that protection to Confederate flags.

Arkansas, Connecticut, Missouri, New Hampshire and Rhode Island are the only states to have taken any kind of action to get rid of their flag-desecration laws, while Alaska, Wyoming and Wisconsin have no such laws, according to The Associated Press. 

Supreme Court rulings

Big picture view:

Numerous attempts over the decades have been made to make flag burning illegal, but have been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme court. 

The backstory:

Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in separate cases in 1989 and 1990 that flag burning and other forms of damage are constitutionally protected free speech.

In reaction to the 1989 decision, which only applied to the Texas flag-desecration law, Congress passed a national anti-flag burning law called the Flag Protection Act of 1989. But in 1990, in United States v. Eichman, the court struck down that law as unconstitutional as well.

By the numbers:

The decisions, though, were not unanimous, getting 5-4 votes.

What they're saying:

In writing the Court’s majority opinion of Texas v. Johnson in 1989, Justice William J. Brennan stated that "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." Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, in his dissenting opinion, labeled flag burning "evil" and said that it "is most likely to be indulged in not to express any particular idea, but to antagonize others."

Previously:

The following are cases in which the Supreme Court earlier ruled against flag-burning or desecration legislation: 

• In Street v. New York (1969), the Supreme Court upheld bus driver Sidney Street’s right to burn an American flag.  
• In 1974, the court overturned judgments against two protesters who had been convicted under state flag-desecration laws (Smith v. Goguen and Spence v. Washington). One of these had sewn an American flag to the seat of his pants; the second had attached peace signs to a US flag that he displayed outside his window.