Editing Symbolic speech (section)

{{Short description|Legal term in United States law}}
'''Symbolic speech''' is a legal term in [[United States law]] used to describe actions that purposefully and discernibly convey a particular message or statement to those viewing it.<ref>[https://dictionary.findlaw.com/definition/symbolic-speech.html "symbolic speech"]. ''Law Dictionary'', [[FindLaw]].</ref>  Symbolic speech is recognized as being [[Protected speech|protected]] under the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] as a form of speech, but this is not expressly written as such in the document. One possible explanation as to why the [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Framers]] did not address this issue in the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] is because the primary forms for both political debate and protest in their time were verbal expression and published word, and they may have been unaware of the possibility of future people using non-verbal expression.<ref name="Epstein 1998 pp. 258-280">Epstein, Lee and Walker, Thomas G. (1998) "Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice" 3rd ed. pp. 258-280 Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc.</ref> Symbolic speech is distinguished from [[pure speech]], which is the communication of ideas through spoken or written words or through conduct limited in form to that necessary to convey the idea.

While First Amendment protections originally only applied to laws passed by Congress, these protections on symbolic speech have also applied to state governments since ''[[Gitlow v. New York]]'', which established the basis for the [[Incorporation of the Bill of Rights|incorporation]] of First Amendment rights into state jurisdictions.