In Seattle, flags were burned at a demonstration organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War outside the Capitol Hill post office shortly after midnight, moments after the law took effect.

[4][5] No one was arrested during the demonstration, but four people identified from photographs were later charged with violating the federal Flag Protection Act of 1989: Mark Haggerty, Jennifer Campbell, Darius Strong and Carlos Garza.

[6] In Washington, D.C., Gregory Lee Johnson, the defendant in Texas v. Johnson, staged a protest together with three companions – artists Dread Scott and Shawn Eichman and Vietnam veteran David Blalock – by burning flags on the steps of the United States Capitol building before a crowd of reporters and photographers.

[9] In both cases, federal district judges in Seattle and Washington, D.C. dismissed charges brought against the protesters, citing Texas v.

[4] In a 5–4 decision by Justice Brennan joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Scalia, and Kennedy, with Stevens, Chief Justice Rehnquist, White, and O'Connor dissenting (the same as in Texas v. Johnson), the Court held that the federal government, like the states, cannot prosecute a person for desecration of a United States flag, because to do so would be inconsistent with the First Amendment.

The Government conceded that desecration of the flag constitutes expressive conduct and enjoys the First Amendment's full protection.

However, the defendants in the Haggerty case had faced an additional charge of destruction of government property, as the burned flag was alleged to have been stolen from Seattle's Capitol Hill Post Office.