Va. Supreme Court Overturns Law Against Cross-Burnings. They’re legal forms of first-amendment speech again, according to this court opinion which, parenthetically, also gives the nod to flag-burning. The dissenting opinion (by the court’s sole African American justice), of course, hinges on the concept that words — if threatening as opposed to merely offensive — should be treated not as speech but behavior. Where we as a society stand on this idea has broad import, starting with the cases, some still in litigation, of ‘free speech’ inciting zealots to murder health care personnel who perform abortions. Are we on a slippery slope to arbitrary infringement of civil liberties if we allow any words to be interpreted as deeds, or can a standard be defined?