WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Virginia law that was used to jail two men who burned a cross in a family’s front yard, but the justices struck down the state’s use of the same law to prosecute a Ku Klux Klan leader who burned a cross at a rally on a willing owner’s property.
The difference? The first case was an act of intimidation, according to the court, and was not protected by the First Amendment.
The ruling struck a middle ground between two extremes on a hot-button issue. Some saw the case as an opportunity for the court to inveigh against the evils of ethnic intimidation and its historical connection to racism; others thought the justices might seize on the opportunity to show unbridled support for free expression. The opinions produced a little of both, with a decision that does not decimate either side.

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