opinion in Texas v. Johnson
E31051
The opinion in Texas v. Johnson is the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that held flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Texas v. Johnson | 5 |
| Texas v. Johnson (U.S. Supreme Court case) | 1 |
| Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989) | 1 |
| opinion in Texas v. Johnson canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T243093 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: opinion in Texas v. Johnson Context triple: [William J. Brennan Jr., notableWork, opinion in Texas v. Johnson]
-
A.
Employment Division v. Smith
Employment Division v. Smith is a landmark 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly narrowed protections for religious practices under the Free Exercise Clause by upholding the enforcement of neutral, generally applicable laws even when they incidentally burden religion.
-
B.
South Dakota v. Dole
South Dakota v. Dole is a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s power to condition federal highway funds on states adopting a minimum drinking age of 21, helping define the scope of the federal spending power.
-
C.
United States v. Lopez
United States v. Lopez is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked the first time in decades the Court struck down a federal law for exceeding Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, signaling a revival of limits on federal regulatory authority.
-
D.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
-
E.
DeBoer v. Snyder
DeBoer v. Snyder was a federal court case challenging Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban that became one of the key cases consolidated into the landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: opinion in Texas v. Johnson Target entity description: The opinion in Texas v. Johnson is the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that held flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment.
-
A.
Employment Division v. Smith
Employment Division v. Smith is a landmark 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly narrowed protections for religious practices under the Free Exercise Clause by upholding the enforcement of neutral, generally applicable laws even when they incidentally burden religion.
-
B.
South Dakota v. Dole
South Dakota v. Dole is a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s power to condition federal highway funds on states adopting a minimum drinking age of 21, helping define the scope of the federal spending power.
-
C.
United States v. Lopez
United States v. Lopez is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked the first time in decades the Court struck down a federal law for exceeding Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, signaling a revival of limits on federal regulatory authority.
-
D.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
-
E.
DeBoer v. Snyder
DeBoer v. Snyder was a federal court case challenging Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban that became one of the key cases consolidated into the landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court majority opinion
ⓘ
judicial opinion ⓘ |
| appliedTo | Texas flag desecration statute ⓘ |
| category |
United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court cases on freedom of speech ⓘ |
| characteristic |
controversial free speech ruling
ⓘ
landmark First Amendment decision ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtTime | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| citation | 491 U.S. 397 ⓘ |
| conclusion | the state may not criminalize flag desecration based on the message it conveys ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country | United States of America ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1989-06-21 ⓘ |
| dissentingJustices |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
John Paul Stevens ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| docketNumber | No. 88-155 ⓘ |
| holding |
Burning the American flag in political protest is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment
ⓘ
The government may not prohibit expression simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable ⓘ |
| joinedBy |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
Antonin Scalia ⓘ Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ Thurgood Marshall ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| legalIssue |
whether flag burning as political protest is protected speech
ⓘ
whether the state’s interest in preserving the flag as a symbol justifies criminalizing its desecration ⓘ |
| locationOfOralArgument |
Supreme Court Building
ⓘ
surface form:
Supreme Court of the United States Building, Washington, D.C.
|
| lowerCourt | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ⓘ |
| lowerCourtDisposition | affirmed judgment of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ⓘ |
| majorityAuthor | William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| partOf | case Texas v. Johnson ⓘ |
| party |
Gregory Lee Johnson
ⓘ
Texas ⓘ
surface form:
State of Texas
|
| precedentFor | United States v. Eichman ⓘ |
| recognizes | flag burning as expressive conduct ⓘ |
| rejectsGovernmentInterest | preserving the flag as a symbol of nationhood and national unity as a basis for suppressing expression ⓘ |
| result | conviction of Gregory Lee Johnson reversed ⓘ |
| standardApplied | strict scrutiny for content-based restrictions on expression ⓘ |
| statuteHeldUnconstitutional | Texas law prohibiting desecration of a venerated object ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
First Amendment jurisprudence
ⓘ
flag desecration ⓘ freedom of speech ⓘ symbolic speech ⓘ |
| term | 1988 Term of the Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| vote | 5–4 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: opinion in Texas v. Johnson Description of subject: The opinion in Texas v. Johnson is the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that held flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
William J. Brennan Jr. (by designation: not; remove if inaccurate)
→
notableWork
→
opinion in Texas v. Johnson
ⓘ
subject surface form:
William J. Brennan Jr.
this entity surface form:
Texas v. Johnson
subject surface form:
William J. Brennan Jr.
this entity surface form:
Texas v. Johnson
this entity surface form:
Texas v. Johnson
this entity surface form:
Texas v. Johnson (U.S. Supreme Court case)
this entity surface form:
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989)
this entity surface form:
Texas v. Johnson
this entity surface form:
Texas v. Johnson