What is more important... absolute protection of the First Amendment, or the right to equality as guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment? Furthermore, what exactly IS guaranteed by the First Amendment, and what lies outside the boundaries? Virginia v Black 123 S.Ct. 1536 (2003) addresses the issue of symbolic hate speech in the form of cross burning and its interaction with the First Amendment. Cross burning has been a notorious symbol for the Ku Klux Klan and has previously been used to threaten the lives of racial minorities, Catholics, Jews, Communists, and other groups. Does this fact constitute enough prima facie evidence in order to convict the violators of cross burning laws? This tension between the right to free speech and right to live without fear of violence exists and is debated today. This case sets the stage for future actions taken by the courts to preserve free speech while preventing racist movements from continuing. Many groups and organizations are and will be affected by Virginia v Black in varying degrees as cross burning with the intent to intimidate becomes a prosecutable offense.
             On August 22, 1998, a leader of a Ku Klux Klan, Barry Elton Black, burned a 25 – 30-foot-tall cross during a Ku Klux Klan rally held on the property of a consenting member. A sheriff discovered the gathering and arrested Black for violating a Virginia statute that forbid burning a cross with the objective of frightening individuals or groups. Black did not deny that he burned a cross, but he challenged the application of prima facie to the case; he claimed that the fact that he set a cross on fire did not necessarily imply that his intention for doing so involved a threat, and that through restricting his right to burn a cross, his First Amendment rights were being eradicated. The Virginia trial court jury found Black guilty of the crime of cross burning with the target of intimidation and fined him $2,500.
             In a separate ...