Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Texas v. Johnson (1989)
Most recently applied in 347 Or. App. 180 - State v. Seay (February 2026)
1971 c.743 §224; 1995 c.261 §2
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(1) A person commits the crime of abuse of venerated objects if the person intentionally abuses a public monument or structure, a place of worship or the national or state flag.
(2) As used in this section and ORS 166.085, “abuse” means to deface, damage, defile or otherwise physically mistreat in a manner likely to outrage public sensibilities.
(3) Abuse of venerated objects is a Class C misdemeanor.
Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.