Illinois man sues over his July 4 flag-burning arrest, wants state law nixed

CHICAGO — A 22-year- old central Illinois man who was arrested and detained after posting online pictures of himself burning an American flag has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the state’s flag desecration law declared unconstitutional.

Such state laws are already invalid after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled separately, in 1989 and 1990, that flag burning and other forms of damage are constitutionally protec ted free speech. How- ever, dozens of states still have the laws.

Police in Urbana used Illinois’ flag desecration law to arrest local resident Bryton Mellott on July 4 of last year. He said he carefully planned his demonstration to protest racial discrimination, pov- erty and other injustices, and then posted six photographs of his actions on Facebook. The posts, which generated hundreds of comments, led police officers to arrest Mellott while he worked at WalMart and detain him for several hours. He was released without being charged.

Mellott, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, discussed the lawsuit at a news conference in Champaign on Thursday, a day after the lawsuit was filed.

“Open dissent is the high- est form of American patriotism,” Mellott said, according to a copy of his remarks. “And it was a frightening display of irony that on the Fourth of July, I should be taken from my workplace to sit in a county jail for exercising this liberty.”