Background Information on the Flag Desecration Amendment
For more than a decade, the Citizen's Flag Alliance and others have expended seemingly endless resources lobbying candidates and members of Congress to pass a constitutional amendment giving the government the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the American flag. Civil libertarians have fought back hard, organizing coalitions of veterans, religious leaders and other Americans who believe that such a constitutional amendment would undermine the very principles for which the American flag stands.
While our fight against the proposed amendment has made headway in recent years, the margins of our victories remain precariously thin. Recent calls for patriotic unity threaten to bolster the cause of those who wish to protect the symbol of our freedoms at the expense of the freedoms themselves. We urge you to read about the history of the flag amendment and why Americans across the country oppose this amendment. Then make your voice heard!
How many times has the Constitution been amended?
Since the original Bill of Rights was adopted, the United States Constitution has been amended only 17 times, almost invariably for important purposes, including abolishing slavery and extending the right to vote to African Americans and women. Two of the amendments enacted and then repealed Prohibition.
What is required to amend the Constitution?
A two-thirds majority of those present in both the Senate and the House must vote for the amendment. Three-quarters of the states must then vote to ratify the amendment. Every state in the U.S. has passed a resolution supporting the flag desecration constitutional amendment leaving little doubt that it would be ratified if passed by Congress.
Timeline of the movement to amend the Constitution to ban flag desecration:
| 1969 | Street v. New York. The Supreme Court overturns the conviction of WWII veteran and Bronze Star honoree Sydney Street who burned his own flag in protest after learning that civil rights activist James Meredith had been shot during a voter registration march in the South. |
| 1989 | Texas v. Johnson. The Supreme Court rules that burning the American flag is a constitutionally protected form of free speech.A constitutional amendment that would have banned flag desecration failed to win the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate, with only 51 Senators voting in favor of the amendment and 48 voting in opposition. |
| 1990 | Congress passes the Flag Protection Act enabling the punishment of anyone who "knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any U.S. flag…"U.S. v. Eichmann. The Supreme Court rules that the Flag Protection Act violates free speech rights. |
| 1995 | By a vote of 312 to 120, the House passed a constitutional flag amendment. In the Senate, however, the amendment failed by a vote of 63 to 36-only four votes shy of the necessary two-thirds majority needed to pass the amendment. |
| 1997 | The House approves a constitutional amendment to outlaw flag desecration by a vote of 310 to 114. |
| 1998 | A flag amendment proposal dies in the Senate after Republican leaders fail to get unanimous consent to bring the proposal to the floor. |
| 1999 | The House passes a flag desecration amendment by a vote of 305 to 124, just fifteen votes more than required for passage. |
| 2000 | The Senate votes on the flag desecration amendment, S.J. Res. 14, which fails by a margin of four votes. 63 Senators vote in favor. 37 Senators vote against the amendment. |
| 2001 | The margin of passage again falls in the House when it passes a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration by a vote of 298 to 125 – just eight votes more than required. |
| 2003 | In January, Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham introduced H.J. Res. 4 and Sen. Orrin Hatch introduced S.J. Res. 4, both proposing a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration. The House of Representatives passes the Flag Desecration Amendment by a vote of 300 in favor, 125 against. |
| 2004 | On March 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee hosts a hearing entitled “Letting the People Decide: The Constitutional Amendment Authorizing Congress to Prohibit Physical Desecration of the Flag of the United States.” Gary May, chair of Veterans Defending the Bill of Rights, and Larry Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan, testify against the amendment before the Committee. A vote in the Senate on this amendment is pending consideration. |
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