<P> The court said, "Recognizing that the right to differ is the centerpiece of our First Amendment freedoms, a government cannot mandate by fiat a feeling of unity in its citizens . Therefore that very same government cannot carve out a symbol of unity and prescribe a set of approved messages to be associated with that symbol ." The court also concluded that the flag burning in this case did not cause or threaten to cause a breach of the peace . </P> <P> Texas asked the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case . In 1989, the Court handed down its decision . </P> <P> The opinion of the Court came down as a controversial 5--4 decision, with the majority opinion delivered by William J. Brennan, Jr. and Justices Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy joining Brennan, with Kennedy also writing a concurrence . </P> <P> The Court first considered the question of whether the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protected non-speech acts, since Johnson was convicted of flag desecration rather than verbal communication, and, if so, whether Johnson's burning of the flag constituted expressive conduct, which would permit him to invoke the First Amendment in challenging his conviction . </P>

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