SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 3.18.2025
Flying the Hamas flag may be reprehensible to many. Before becoming too outraged don’t forget that the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan right to brandish the abhorrent swastika is protected speech in America.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.18.2025
“There’s nothing illegal about it,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The First Amendment protects even speech that advocates for unlawful action, said First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy. Speech turns into a crime only when it involves a threat to commit harm, he said.
“Speech alone cannot be a crime,” David Loy said.
A San Carlos resident’s decision to fly a Hamas flag outside their home in recent days has stirred outrage among some residents of the Peninsula city, who said they viewed the flag’s display as an endorsement of terrorism.
Some residents said they reported the flag to federal law enforcement officials and their counterparts in San Mateo County. The flag displays the Islamic oath and creed in white calligraphy on a green background.
Flying the flag is protected under free speech laws, legal experts said. It’s unclear whether the flag, flown atop a pole in front of a house on Crestview Drive on and off in the past two weeks, has triggered any kind of government investigation.
Despite the uproar, experts said the display of the flag amounts to symbolic speech protected under the First Amendment.
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