388
Thomas, J., dissenting
Justice Thomas, dissenting.
In every culture, certain things acquire meaning well beyond what outsiders can comprehend. That goes for both the sacred, see Texas v. Johnson, 491 U. S. 397, 422-429 (1989) (Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting) (describing the unique position of the American flag in our Nation's 200 years of history), and the profane. I believe that cross burning is the paradigmatic example of the latter.
I
Although I agree with the majority's conclusion that it is constitutionally permissible to "ban . . . cross burning carried out with the intent to intimidate," ante, at 363, I believe that the majority errs in imputing an expressive component to the activity in question, see ante, at 362 (relying on one of the exceptions to the First Amendment's prohibition on content-based discrimination outlined in R. A. V. v. St. Paul, 505 U. S. 377 (1992)). In my view, whatever expressive value cross burning has, the legislature simply wrote it out by banning only intimidating conduct undertaken by a particular means. A conclusion that the statute prohibiting cross burning with intent to intimidate sweeps beyond a prohibition on certain conduct into the zone of expression overlooks not only the words of the statute but also reality.
A
"In holding [the ban on cross burning with intent to intimidate] unconstitutional, the Court ignores Justice Holmes' familiar aphorism that 'a page of history is worth a volume of logic.' " Texas v. Johnson, supra, at 421 (Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting) (quoting New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U. S. 345, 349 (1921)).
"The world's oldest, most persistent terrorist organization is not European or even Middle Eastern in origin. Fifty years before the Irish Republican Army was orga-
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