"Flag waving: Congress must resist another attempt to amend the Constitution to protect Old Glory "

Albany Times Union
June 13, 2005

With Tuesday's Flag Day observances in mind, some members of Congress are making yet another attempt to revive a misguided and unnecessary proposal to enact a constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration. Every year, it seems, a core of lawmakers raise this issue, only to see the proposal go down to defeat. And every year, the tactics change. Last year, the goal was to make it appear as if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., was the obstacle to passage. It didn't work. This year, though, the tactic is more subtle -- a clear attempt by supporters to take advantage of the public's waning interest in this issue and push the amendment forward. If they succeed, they will have dishonored the very Constitution that these lawmakers profess to revere.

Already the House Judiciary Committee has approved an amendment that would "prohibit the physical desecration" of the American flag. A full House vote is expected this week, and passage is seen as inevitable. Only the Senate, which has wisely beaten back similar attempts in the past, stands in the way. But that is no guarantee that the outcome will be the same this year.

Protecting the flag has become a favorite issue with some lawmakers ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling 16 years ago that upheld flag burning as a form of free speech. Proponents of the amendment argue that the act of burning, or other forms of desecration, isn't speech at all, but vandalism, and should be prosecuted. But vandals act for their own interests, not political protest. And desecration is such a broad term that any use of the flag, such as clothing designs or an art exhibit, might be deemed unlawful.

True enough, it's not a welcome sight to witness fellow Americans burning their country's flag. It offends anyone with a shred of respect for what the flag stands for. Yet that's the point: The flag represents a free country where the right to dissent is as protected as the right to object to the dissenters. To curb these rights, even in the name of patriotism, would diminish what the flag stands for.

As the American Civil Liberties Union notes, a group called Veterans Defending the Bill of Rights understands this. So do members of Veterans for Peace. Both oppose a flag desecration amendment. As so does Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served as secretary of state during President Bush's first term. Every member of the House and Senate should listen to his words: "The First Amendment exists to ensure that freedom of speech and expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also that which we find outrageous. I would not amend that great shield of democracy to hammer a few miscreants. The flag will be flying proudly long after they have slunk away."