Why did Texas v. Johnson protect the burning of the U.S. flag?

In Texas v. Johnson (1989), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the U.S. flag is a protected form of symbolic speech under the First Amendment.12

The Court determined that the government cannot prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the message offensive or disagreeable. Because the state law in question punished the act specifically because of its symbolic message, the Court held it to be unconstitutional. While the government may enforce neutral regulations—such as general fire-control laws that ban burning items in public—it cannot suppress conduct solely to prevent the expression of a particular viewpoint. By protecting this act, the Court affirmed the bedrock principle that the Constitution guards even those forms of expression that many find deeply objectionable.12