The Senate fell one vote short of passing legislation that could prevent me from making photos such as this. One single vote. That’s too close.
I thought that this was a free country. I thought that our freedom of expression was on that list of 10 things that make us better than everybody else. What does it say when a bill this vague can come within one fucking vote of being passed? The exact wording of the legislation was:
The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.
That’s it. And it’s scary, because that’s vague enough to leave the door open to anyone’s interpretation of what is considered “desecration”. People are really fucked up in this country… I don’t want some nut-bag’s opinion of what’s considered “desecration” to land me in jail, or in Guantanamo.
That’s really the problem. The legislation doesn’t name what would be considered “desecration”. Nor does it name what would be an appropriate punishment for desecration.
In fact, in reality this vote was nothing more than an attempt to subvert the Constitution. You see, the Constitution seperates powers between three branches of government… you probably remember hearing something about that in grade school. Well, in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning was legal, and was protected by the Bill of Rights. So when Congress tries to pass legislation granting itself power to legislate the flag, what they’re really trying to do is thumb their nose at the Supreme Court and do what was already ruled to be un-constitutional.
Yes, that’s right. Now think of what this country would be like if we allowed that pattern to start. All of the freedoms we take for granted would be in question if we were to accept that line of action.
I’m against flag burning just like most of America is. Why? Because the primary use of flag burning is not constructive… it’s the equivalent of hate speach. Nevertheless, VCRs are not illegal even though their primary use is to illegally copy movies. You can’t just ban everything because some people — or even most people — use it in an inappropriate way. Eventually, we’ve got to rely on common sense.
And in fact, the Federal Flag Code suggests that “The Flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.” So after McDonald’s has had their flag out for too long, or on too many windy days, they should burn it and then be imprisoned, right?
There is a lot here that hasn’t been considered, folks. And don’t even try to tell me it’s a coincidence that this vote got rushed to the table in the last week before July 4th. Look, I’m as patriotic as the next guy, and I love my country. But next Tuesday, I’ll be burning a flag. You can count on it.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
The first federal Flag Protection Act was passed by Congress in 1968 in response to protest burnings of the flag at demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Over time, 48 of the 50 U.S. states also enacted similar flag protection laws as well. All of these statutes were overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States by a 5-4 vote in the case Texas v. Johnson, (1989) as unconstitutional restrictions of public expression.
After the Johnson decision, Congress quickly passed a new Flag Protection Act, which was also struck down by the Supreme Court the following year by the same 5-4 majority in the case U.S. v. Eichman (1990). The Court decided that expression through flag burning was constitutionally protected.
BUT…
Ruling in an important First Amendment case, Virginia v. Black, (2003) the U.S. Supreme Court said that states may outlaw acts of cross burning.