flag burning amendment

The Flag Burning Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would have outlawed burning the Flag of the United States. The full text of the amendment is:

The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

This is intended to give Congress the right to make laws in which burning the United States flag in a public protest could be a criminal action. All previous such laws have been overturned by decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, the most notable of which include Texas v. Johnson and U.S. v. Eichman. Many have argued that burning the flag is a very offensive gesture deserving special treatment. Others, however, have argued that giving Congress such a power is essentially limiting the freedom of speech enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and symbolized by the flag itself. The amendment has been repeatedly passed by the United States House of Representatives, the first time being in 1995. However, it has consistently failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority of Senate votes. The Senate last rejected the amendment (as Senate Joint Resolution 14) in March 2000 when a 63-37 vote fell four votes short of the required two-thirds majority. If the amendment cleared both houses of Congress, it would still need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states to become part of the Constitution. According to the Citizens Flag Alliance, which advocates in favor of the amendment, 49 of the 50 states have passed resolutions expressing support for the proposed amendment (Vermont is the exception), but these are not legally binding.

Flag Burning Amendment

See also