Texas flag desecration statute struck down

It has taken a quarter-century, but Texas has been told for a second time that it can’t have a law on the books making desecration of the state or U.S. flags a criminal act.

That point should have been clear back in 1989, when the U.S. Supreme Court nullified a previous law in Texas and those of 47 other states.

Stubbornly, the Texas Legislature turned around and immediately passed a new law with the same goal, making flag desecration a Class A misdemeanor.

In a 6-3 decision handed down on Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, repeated what the Supreme Court had already said.

“The statute is invalid on its face because it is unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment,” wrote Judge Sharon Keller.

The court ruled that the statute should be taken off the books.

The First Amendment protects an awful lot of things we might not agree with, but people still have a right to do them.

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Texas flag desecration statute struck down."