Politics: Cross Burning Stays Banned

The Supreme Court upheld the ban on cross burning.

The court split 5-4 to rule that the ban does not violate the constitutional guarantee of free speech, but the vote was 6-3 to uphold the ban overall.

Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's only black member, agreed that cross burning is abhorrent but said the court didn't even have to consider the First Amendment implications because the state had a right to bar conduct it considered "particularly vicious."

"Just as one cannot burn down someone's house to make a political point and then seek refuge in the First Amendment, those who hate cannot terrorize and intimidate to make their point," he wrote.

At issue was a 50-year-old Virginia law that makes it a crime to burn a cross as an act of intimidation. A lower court ruled the law muzzled free speech.

"While a burning cross does not inevitably convey a message of intimidation, often the cross burning intends that the recipients of the message fear for their lives," O'Connor wrote. "And when a cross burning is used to intimidate, few if any messages are more powerful."