TheSkiffView
BURNING
Guaranteed under First Amendment

For decades, cross burning has served as a symbol of racial terror in America, especially in the South.

Under a 5-4 decision handed down from the Supreme Court Monday, states now have the right to prosecute cross burners as long as the government can prove that the act was intended as racial intimidation.

According to the ruling, state laws that declare that cross burning is automatically assumed to be evidence of intimidation, are unconstitutional.

This decision will probably be unpopular, but no matter how you look at it, it is an attempt on the Supreme Court to protect Americans’ freedom of expression.

It is very likely to arouse hate and anger in many people, as the burning cross has been associated with violence and terror for decades. But that reason alone is not enough to categorically ban all cross burnings.

Whether you agree with it or not, the right to burn a cross, just like the right to burn a flag, is a privilege that we are guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Someone who uses a burning cross for intimidation purposes is violating that privilege and, as such, will be subject to prosecution under the law.

The court’s decision offers middle ground to a case that deals with extremely volatile emotions on both sides.

It upholds a 50-year-old Virginia law that was used in two separate prosecutions.

The court supported the law’s use to jail two men who burned a four-foot cross on the front lawn of a black neighbor. However, they rejected Virginia’s use of the same law to prosecute a Ku Klux Klan leader who burned a 30-foot cross at a rally held on a willing owner’s private land.