Two Cheers for Trump’s Stance on Flag Burning | The American Spectator

President Donald Trump’s criticism of the 1989 Supreme Court decision Texas v. Johnson, which legalized burning the American flag, is deserving of great respect, notwithstanding some problems with it. 
Trump was right to say, “The people in this country don’t want to see our American flag burned and spit on.” This alone is not sufficient reason to ban flag burning, but it is not irrelevant to the issue. More important, he was right to sneer at the high court when he said, “[T]hey called it freedom of speech.” This needs to be expanded upon to understand why he is not off-base. 
Two cheers for Trump. His reason for sneering, however, is not deserving of a third cheer. 
“But there’s another reason [besides free speech] which is perhaps much more important,” he said, “it’s called death. Because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy.” He argued that flag burning “incites riots” and that those who are convicted would face a year in prison.
The problem with this formulation is that it is a recipe for stifling any speech deemed controversial. We’ve been down this road before. 
In 1949, the Supreme Court exonerated a suspended Catholic priest, Father Arthur Terminiello, after he made an inflammatory speech in Chicago. He was arrested and prosecuted for breaking a Chicago ordinance prohibiting speech deemed to “stir the public to anger” or create a disturbance.
If his conviction had not been overturned, a mob could threaten to riot whenever they learned that someone whom they disagree with was scheduled to speak at a particular venue. This is what legal analyst Harry Kalven called the “heckler’s veto.” It puts the blame on those who want to express themselves. 
Ergo, Trump’s rationale for objecting to the Supreme Court’s decision allowing flag burning is a nonstarter. But is also wrong to say that he has no basis for objecting to that ruling. Conservative pundit Dana Loesch errs when she says, “the government has no right to control speech or expression.” …