Today in Supreme Court History: August 22, 1998

8/22/1998: On August 22, 1998, Barry Black led a Ku Klux Klan rally in Carroll County, Virginia. The Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of his prosecution for cross burning in Virginia v. Black (2003).

The Rehnquist Court

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

At oral argument Thomas surprised everyone by speaking. He said, "Cross-burning has no purpose other than to provoke fear and terror." Of course at argument you have to boot-lick the judges and not contradict them, particularly if it's a black man talking about cross-burning, particularly if he has been heretofore noticeably lacking in caring about the effects of racial animus.

But Thomas was wrong. I've seen cross-burning done without the purpose of provoking fear and terror. It used to happen at my undergraduate college, where a fraternity would burn a cross in front of the only all-female dorm. It was a joke, meant to poke fun at the girls' religious virginity. All the people involved were white. The objections were made by the (many) born-again Christians on campus. The black students' association, normally not bashful about expressing themselves, did not weigh in. This was 1976.

[dwshelf]

So is it about the law, or is it about the consequences of following the law too faithfully?