In the 1973 case Smith, Sheriff v. Goguen, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of defendant Leo Goguen who had been convicted under a Massachusetts law for publicly desecrating the American flag by sewing it onto his jeans. The court held that this state statute was unconstitutionally vague and overly broad as it failed to specify what constituted contemptuous treatment of the flag. This lack of clarity could potentially criminalize a wide range of expressive conduct protected under First Amendment rights to free speech and expression. Therefore, such ambiguity violated due process requirements outlined in Fourteenth Amendment protections against arbitrary enforcement or discriminatory application by authorities based on their subjective interpretation or personal prejudices about what actions disrespect the flag.

In the dissenting opinion for Smith v. Goguen, Justice White argued that the Massachusetts flag desecration statute was not unconstitutionally vague and should have been upheld. He contended that while some applications of the law might be unclear, this did not invalidate all potential uses of it. The majority's decision to strike down the entire law based on hypothetical scenarios where its application could be ambiguous was seen as an overreach by Justice White. Furthermore, he disagreed with their interpretation that only explicit political statements were protected under First Amendment rights to free speech; in his view, nonverbal actions such as flag desecration also fell within these protections unless they incited violence or created a clear and present danger.