son was fined $2,000 and was sentenced to one year in state prison (Goldstein).
             Johnson appealed the decision all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Five years later, in 1989, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction by the narrowest of margins, five to four. The ruling stated that "free speech does not end at the spoken or written word." (Goldstein).
             After the controversial ruling in Texas v. Johnson, United States lawmakers wasted little time in passing the Federal Flag Protection Act of 1989. The Flag Protection Act was very similar to the earlier unconstitutional Texas statue. The only difference was that the federal law applied specifically to the American flag, and described a much broader range of offenses (Goldstein).
             The Flag Protection Act met its first constitutional challenge very quickly. The 1990 Supreme Court case of United States v. Eichman brought the issue to the forefront once again. The government's main arguments in favo
             ...