HARRISBURG - A flag-burning activist has sued the Borough of Lewistown, one of many lawsuits he has filed through the years.
Eugene Stilp filed suit in Harrisburg federal court on Sept. 26, alleging Lewistown's open burning ordinances suppress his First Amendment right to burn flags as a form of political protest. He claims he was stopped from burning four Donald Trump-related flags in front of the Mifflin County Courthouse at a Sept. 25 protest.
He has Trump campaign flags sewed together with Nazi, Soviet Union and Confederate flags.
"Stilp's intended purpose in burning the Trump protest flags was to make a public statement in opposition to the policies of the Trump Administration and the 2020 Trump for President reelection campaign" the suit says.
A law enforcement officer prevented him from burning the flags by threatening him with a citation, he says. The law firm Mette, Evans & Woodside represents Stilp.