The defendant in the landmark Supreme Court case Texas v. Johnson, which invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag, said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump is “using the bully pulpit for fascism” by wanting to ban flag burning.

The First Amendment became a hot topic Tuesday after Mr. Trump tweeted that flag burners should lose their citizenship or spend a year in jail.

Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

Gregory Lee Johnson, a Communist activist whose conviction for burning the American flag during the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas was overturned under the First Amendment, said Mr. Trump is attacking free speech.

“He’s using the bully pulpit for fascism and forced patriotism — and I mean ‘bully’ in every sense of the word,” Mr. Johnson told the New York Daily News. “Fascism means taking the national symbol and attaching only one permissible meaning to it. That has broad and dangerous implications.”

The main implication, he said, is to silence dissent against America — which he called “an ugly empire that does horrific things around the world,” the Daily News reported.

“Across the Middle East, they’ve caused mass suffering with drones and backing puppet armies. American imperialism and Islamic fundamentalist jihadism are both outmoded and they must go,” he said.

Mr. Johnson last burned the American flag to protest Mr. Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He and other activists were charged with assault after cinders from their burning flag allegedly hit two Infowars staffers, the Daily News reported.

Mr. Johnson is reportedly due back in court Thursday in Cleveland, but he showed no signs of halting his protest.

“Of course I intend on doing this again,” he told the Daily News. “But I don’t need to be the only one. Trump is threatening this form of protest. Do you want them telling you that you have to love the flag or love the country?

“I still think we need a revolution,” he added.

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized flag burning as a constitutionally protected form of free speech.

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