Megan Moore

JOMC 393

Professor Guffey

February 26, 2020

The First Amendment

The First Amendment gives everyone the right to freedom of press, speech, and freedom of

assembly. Regarding the confederate flag, people who still use the flag have the right to unless it

is a violent protest.

The First Amendment in the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States

of America. Originally consisting of seven articles, the constitution delineates the national form

of the government. Since the end of the American Civil War, private and official use of the

confederacy’s flag had stood the test of time through cultures and racial controversy in The

United States. These flags are displayed in states, cities, towns, colleges, private organizations,

and individuals. The modern-day display of the confederate flag is associated with the Civil

Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1950s and continues in the present day.

According to Sara L. Zeigler “ The use of the battle flag in state flag designs reached the 11th

Circuit Court of Appeals in 1997 in ​Coleman v. Miller​, in which James Andrew Coleman sued to

enjoin Georgia from flying the state flag over state office buildings.” Colman alleged that the use

of the confederate flag “emblem in the state flag violated his right to equal protection under the

Fourteenth Amendment and his right of free expression under the First Amendment” The first

Amendment argument focused on the flag as a symbolic speech Coleman, as a citizen, he was
being forced to represent a position he found morally offensive. The courts focused on its

attention on the equal protection argument, actually dismissing it. The court also rejected the

First Amendment argument, because the display of the flag didn’t make the individual

acknowledge the flag

An article from The Guardian by Donna Ladd explores why people still hang the flag in their

front yard and also supports the flag altogether. “McCluney, 53, is a national officer in the Sons

of Confederate Veterans, which accepts male descendants of southern soldiers. SCV was created

in 1896 for the “vindication of the cause for which we fought” and to ensure “that a true history

of the 1861-1865 period is preserved.” SCV members worked with the United Confederate

Veterans and other groups in the early 20th century to demand school textbooks supporting the

revisionist view that the south fought for a just “lost cause” that was decidedly not slavery.

McCluney has taught history and government for 25 years to mostly black Delta students.

“People like me … it’s in our blood. We know about our family, their sacrifices,” he says of his

20 ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.

“Slavery was an issue, but not the cause,” the teacher tells me. He repeats SCV’s selective

semantics with precision: the south seceded over “states’ rights” to financial independence; the

north and Abraham Lincoln weren’t against slavery at the outset; northern tariffs were killing the

south; few southerners and soldiers owned humans; slavery was fading anyway, and it wasn’t

about white supremacy.” In recent years, members of the Ku Klux Klan have used the flag as a

representation of their ancestors and the rights they have under the first amendment. Although

after the violence that occurred at the Unite the Right rally on August 11th, 2017 through August

12th, 2017 and the death of nine black people in the heads of Dylann Roof sparked new protests
for the flag. During the rally James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of

counter-protesters, hitting several and slamming into a stopped sedan, which in turn struck a

stopped minivan. One person was killed and 19 others were injured. After this incident people

started to protest the flag again demanded that it be removed from public places, supporters of

the flag can only hang it on their property.

According to CBS News, an African-American man took his case against Mississippi to the

Supreme Court “In papers filed Wednesday, attorneys for Carlos Moore said lower courts were

wrong to reject his argument that the flag is a symbol of white supremacy that harms him and his

young daughter by violating the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection to all citizens. His

attorneys wrote that under the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling against Moore, "a city

could adopt 'White Supremacy Forever' as its official motto; or a county could incorporate an

image of white-hooded figures and a noose hanging from a tree into its county seal; or a state

could incorporate a Nazi swastika, as an endorsement of Aryan/white supremacy, in its state

flag."

According to the same article, Mississippi is the last state flag to feature the Confederate battle

emblem. Protesters say the symbol is racist. Supporters say it represents the history and

Mississippi has used the flag since 1894 although several cities and towns stopped flying the

flag. The lawsuit that Moore filed in February 2016 says the Mississippi flag is “State-sanctioned

hate speech” and seek to have it declared an unconstitutional relic of slavery. In September, U.S

District Judge Carlton Reeves dismissed the case saying Moore lacked legal standing to sue

because he failed to show the emblem caused an identifiable legal injury but despite ruling

against Moore, Reeves devoted nine pages of his decision to historical context, noting that the
racial hardship intended to keep segregation and white supremacy in the Deep South in the years

leading up to Mississippi's adoption of the flag. Reeves also dismissed an argument some flag

supporters made outside the courtroom, that there is no connection between slavery and the

confederate battle emblem. Moore now is seeking the Supreme Court to send the case back to

Reeves’ federal courtroom for a full trial on the merits of his argument. An example of

supporting the flag is Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans. The case was a

United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that license plates are government

speech and are consequently more easily regulated/subjected to contact restrictions than private

speech under the First Amendment. The Taxes Division sought to have a specialty license plate

issued in Taxes with an image of the Confederate Battle Flag. Their request was denied

prompting the group to sue, claiming that denying a specialty plate was a First Amendment

violation. According to information about the case on the case’s Wikipedia page

“The majority opinion, written by Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, relied heavily on the Court's

2009 decision in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, which stated that a city in Utah was not

obliged to place a monument from a minor religion in a public park, even though it had one

devoted to the Ten Commandments. The court ruled that refusing the minor monument was a

valid expression of government speech that did not infringe on the First Amendment's guarantee

of free speech. Breyer wrote that the inclusion of a message on a state-issued license plate

implies government endorsement of that message, and those car owners "could simply display

the message in question in larger letters on a bumper sticker right next to the plate."

The Confederate flag and its history have been a sensitive and controversial topic in America.

Some people think it represents years of slavery and violence. Others believe it represents
history. The First Amendment states that we, the people have the right to protest something

peacefully but you also have the right to fight for something important to you. As long as it’s

peaceful
 Word Cited Page

Zeigler, Sara L., and John R. Vile. “Confederate Flag.” ​Confederate Flag​,

www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/994/confederate-flag​.

Ladd, Donna. “Pride and Prejudice? The Americans Who Fly the Confederate Flag.” ​The

Guardian​, Guardian News and Media, 6 Aug. 2018,

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/06/pride-and-prejudice-the-americans-who-fly-the-con

federate-flag​.

CBS News. “Fight over Confederate-Themed Flag Going to U.S. Supreme Court.” ​CBS News,​

CBS Interactive, 29 June 2017,

www.cbsnews.com/news/fight-confederate-themed-flag-going-us-supreme-court/​.

“Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.” ​Wikipedia​, Wikimedia Foundation,

10 Oct. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_v._Texas_Division,_Sons_of_Confederate_Veterans.