ABSTRACT
Like the Gregory Lee Johnson nag burning, virtually all of the post-Vietnam flag burnings involved members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a small Maoist-oriented group. In the lower courts, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit foreshadowed the 1989-1990 findings of the Supreme Court in another one of the RCP flag burning incidents. The Flag Protection Act specifically exempted from its provisions "any conduct consisting of the disposal of a flag when it has become worn or soiled". Dallas police, who had observed the entire march without taking any action, rounded up scores of protesters about half an hour after the flag burning, at first charging all of them, including Johnson, with disorderly conduct. The Eichman decision sparked an immediate renewal of calls by President George Bush and others for a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag desecration. The Eichman decision essentially followed the outlines of the Johnson decision and the district court opinions.
