Ready?

I was born ready.

Welcome to Advisory Opinions. I'm Sarah Isger. That's David French. And do we have a show for you? We're going to burn some flags. We're going to talk about the dinkists. And of course, we've got that amazing Supreme Court interim docket decision on grants for one for what plus special guest professor sandy levinson of the

university of texas and his wife cynthia leavenson are going to talk about their book fault lines in

the constitution to answer one of the questions we get a lot on this podcast all coming up on

advisory opinions.

All right, David, I think we got to start with some flag burning. The president has issued an executive order, not criminalizing flag burning, because that's not an option after Texas v. Johnson,

but saying that the Department of Justice should

prioritize other crimes that may have occurred if a flag was also burned. So think disorderly conduct,

you know, incitement, et cetera. I thought that we should start with Texas v. Johnson, just to give everyone a reminder what the 80s

felt like, and go from there as to why that dog won't hunt either. So, David, I was actually

writing something on Texas v. Johnson a little while ago and did, you know, some good

research into the background of that case. Can I read you what I wrote that I never published?

Yeah, please. I'd love that. Joey Johnson was the last of the true hippies. As thousands were gathering

in Woodstock, he was coming of age as a 13-year-old living on an American military base in

West Germany with his stepfather. He was already opposed to the war in Vietnam and spent his

time reading about drafty protests. In just a few years, he was back in the United States,

a high school dropout in a member of the revolutionary communist youth brigade, ready to be

one of those protesters he'd idolized while in Germany.

But by the mid-80s, the anti-war movement he had so wanted to be a part of had largely petered out.

Bell bottoms and free love had been replaced by pinstripes and greed is good.

Michael J. Fox, as the precocious Alex P. Keaton, was the perfect encapsulation of a new conservative generation

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