Via the AP: House Approves Flag-Burning Amendment
The House on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to ban desecration of the American flag, a measure that for the first time stands a chance of passing the Senate as well.By a 286-130 vote–eight more than needed–House members approved the amendment after a debate over whether such a ban would uphold or run afoul of the Constitution’s free-speech protections.
Interesting. I am mildly surprised. To be honest, I see no need to amend the Constitution to protect the flag, and indeed, I am not particularly comfortable with any regulation of expression. I will also state that Congress has other, more important issues it ought to be spending its time with. It isn’t as if flags are being ignited left and right these days and this begs for action. Rather, it is mostly empty grandstanding (although I know that some will disagree).
The most interesting part is that there is a chance that the amedment will be formally proposed:
By most counts, 65 current senators have voted for or said they intend to support the amendment, two shy of the crucial tally. More than a quarter of current senators were not members of that chamber during the last vote.The Senate is expected to consider the measure after the July 4th holiday.
Since we haven’t had an amendment since 1992–and that was the screwy Madison left-over (the last full blown amendment process conclude d in 1971)–this would at least be semi-interesting to see happen.
Still, the more I thinnk about it, the less I like the idea for the following, albeit abstract, reason: amendments to the Constitution that limit the government are fine, and indeed, my favorite kind. Amendments designed to limit the actions of citizens that are otherwise unharmful to other citizens, strikes me as a bad idea.
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June 22nd, 2005 at 3:44 pm
I don’t approve for another (also abstract) reason. The general principle of freedom of speech is only as powerful as our willingness to apply it to speech that is unpopular. Once a particular interest group demonstrates that it is possible to carve an exception in the general principle for speech it finds offensive, it will be that much easier for other interest groups to try to do the same thing. Punch enough holes in the principle and it turns into swiss cheese, then collapses outright.
If the flag-burning amendment gets ratified, it won’t be the last of the speech-restricting amendments. It will be the first of many.
June 22nd, 2005 at 4:03 pm
House Approves Flag-Burning Amendment
Once again, the House has passed an amendment to the Constitution to ban freedom of expression in the form of burning the American flag. (Unless done to show respect for a frayed, old flag—in which case it’s encouraged.)
House Approves …
June 22nd, 2005 at 8:36 pm
It’s almost a cliche, but still so true:
Let them burn the flags, because it gives me a really easy way to see who the idiots are.
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:24 am
Those who genuinely hate America, and I mean the priciples that it was founded on and is supposed to stand for, will support this misbegotten thing, because if the red, white and blue stood for nothing, it would be easier for the ‘Publicans to criminalize democracy, something they’ve been trying to do since the days of Joe McCarthy