The Flag Desecration Amendment, often referred to as the Flag-burning Amendment, is a controversial proposed constitutional amendment to the United States Constitution that would allow the United States Congress to statutorily prohibit expression of political views through the physical desecration of the flag of the United States. The concept of flag desecration continues to provoke a heated debate over protecting a national symbol, protecting free speech, and protecting the liberty represented by a national symbol.
While the proposed amendment is most frequently referred to colloquially in terms of "flag burning," the language would permit the prohibition of all forms of flag desecration, which may take forms other than burning, such as using the flag for clothing or napkins.
The most recent attempt to adopt a flag desecration amendment failed in the United States Senate by one vote on June 27, 2006.
Read more about Flag Desecration Amendment: Proposed Amendment, Polls, Judicial and Legislative History, Potential Interpretations of The Amendment, Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words flag, desecration and/or amendment:
“Hath not the morning dawned with added light?
And shall not evening call another star
Out of the infinite regions of the night,
To mark this day in Heaven? At last, we are
A nation among nations; and the world
Shall soon behold in many a distant port
Another flag unfurled!”
—Henry Timrod (1828–1867)
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to escape writing of the worst thing of all—
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so that blighted elms, sick rivers, massacres would seem
mere emblems of that desecration of ourselves?”
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“The First Amendment is not a blanket freedom-of-information act. The constitutional newsgathering freedom means the media can go where the public can, but enjoys no superior right of access.”
—George F. Will (b. 1934)