Page:Johnson v. State.pdf/4

] The trial court very clearly and, properly instructed the jury that appellant could not be convicted for refusing to salute the flag of the United States; that he was within his constitutional rights to refuse to 'salute the flag if he did not deSire to do so. Appellant's instruction No. 2 given by the court is in this language:

"You are instructed that before you can find the defendant guilty under this charge, you must find from the evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt that he did or said something or some things in an affirmative sense, manifesting a contempt for the flag; it is not sufficient that he merely refused or failed to salute the flag when directed to do so by the prosecuting witness, Mrs. Cooper, or failed or refused to do any other thing directed by her. To constitute the crime with which he is charged required some voluntary action or statement on his part in contempt of the flag."

The question, therefore, presented here is not whether appellant was within his constitutional rights in refusing to salute the flag, but did the evidence warrant the jury in finding the appellant guilty of "publicly exhibiting contempt for the United States flag" in violation of the provisions of the statute, supra.

It seems to us that it would be difficult to imagine a state of facts under which contempt for the flag could be more convincingly demonstrated in public than in the circumstances here. The strange and unnatural conduct of this man at the very time he was receiving, from the hands of a most generous government, supplies to aid him in sustaining a large family, may not be explained away on the grounds of ignorance or religious beliefs.

It is one thing to be given the privilege of refusing to salute the flag, but quite another when one by word or act publicly exhibits contempt for the flag. Here appellant after refusing to salute the flag, as was his privilege, proceeded to address a large number of people and tell them that the flag meant nothing to him and was only a "rag." Webster's dictionary defines "rag" as "A waste piece of cloth torn or cut off, a shred or tatter,