Justice Dept. Moves to Dismiss Charges Against Veteran Who Burned Flag Outside White House After Trump Executive Order
The Justice Department moved to dismiss charges against veteran Jan Carey, who burned an American flag outside the White House after President Trump’s 2025 executive order urging prosecutors to use “content‑neutral” laws to target incitement or “fighting words” as a way to sidestep the Supreme Court’s 1989 flag‑burning decision. Carey had been indicted on two misdemeanors — lighting a fire “not in a designated area and receptacle” and lighting a fire “in a manner that threatened, caused damage to, and resulted in the burning of property, real property, and park resources,” each carrying up to six months in custody — and pleaded not guilty, saying he burned the flag to “put this to the test.”
📌 Key Facts
- The Justice Department moved to drop/dismiss charges against Jan Carey, a veteran who burned a U.S. flag outside the White House.
- CBS identified the defendant as Jan Carey and said it could not reach his lawyer or the U.S. Attorney’s Office for comment.
- Video captured Carey saying he burned the flag specifically to 'put this to the test' of President Trump’s executive order.
- Prosecutors had brought two misdemeanor counts charging lighting a fire 'not in a designated area and receptacle' and lighting a fire 'in a manner that threatened, caused damage to, and resulted in the burning of property, real property, and park resources.'
- Each count carried a maximum of six months in custody; Carey pleaded not guilty and was actively challenging the indictment.
- The story framed Carey’s act in the context of Trump’s 2025 executive order, which sought to circumvent the Supreme Court’s 1989 flag‑burning precedent by directing prosecutors to rely on 'content‑neutral' laws and to target cases involving incitement or 'fighting words.'
📊 Relevant Data
In a 2017 Cato Institute survey of Americans, 63% of Hispanic Americans, 58% of White Americans, and 50% of African Americans favored a law that would make it illegal to burn the American flag, compared to an overall 58% support for such a ban.
The State of Free Speech and Tolerance in America — Cato Institute
A 2025 study analyzing 19,821 protest events from April 2020 to January 2021 found that Black Lives Matter-associated protests had a 5.1% predicted probability of experiencing antagonistic police behavior (such as assaults, use of less-lethal weapons, or arrests) before any protester violence, compared to 1.4% for Stop-the-Steal protests, 1.0% for anti-COVID-19 protests, and 2.0% for other protests, even after controlling for factors like protester behavior and protest size.
Examining disparity in police behavior during the 2020 social and political protests — Criminology
📰 Source Timeline (2)
Follow how coverage of this story developed over time
- Clarifies the defendant’s name and spelling as Jan Carey and notes CBS could not reach his lawyer or the U.S. Attorney’s Office for comment.
- Details the exact language of the two misdemeanor counts: lighting a fire 'not in a designated area and receptacle' and lighting a fire 'in a manner that threatened, caused damage to, and resulted in the burning of property, real property, and park resources.'
- Explains that both counts carried a maximum of six months in custody and notes Carey had pleaded not guilty and was actively challenging the indictment.
- Provides more specific description of Trump’s 2025 executive order, including its attempt to route around the Supreme Court’s 1989 flag‑burning decision by instructing prosecutors to use 'content‑neutral' laws and to target cases involving incitement or 'fighting words.'
- Includes Carey’s on‑scene quote, from video, that he burned the flag specifically to 'put this to the test' of Trump’s executive order.