Amendment to ban flag burning? Those damn Republicans have bigger fish to fry!

Amendment supporters exaggerate threat to flag
USA Today
Tue Jun 14, 6:46 AM ET
Have you seen any American flags burned recently? Not likely. No one else has, either.

But that isn't stopping some members of Congress from exaggerating the threat. The danger is so dire, they say, that the Constitution must be amended to protect Old Glory. The House of Representatives could vote to do so as soon as this week.

The temptation for politicians to engage in demagoguery in the name of patriotism is a Washington ritual as sure as the arrival of Flag Day today. But this is a phony crisis, and the supposed remedy is pure poison. Congress would, for the first time in 214 years, tamper with the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, the cornerstone of American democracy.

And for what? As of Monday, even the leading organization seeking this legislation lists only one flag-burning incident this year. That was a middle-of-the-night act of petty vandalism outside a library in Topeka, with no apparent witnesses. Suspects can be prosecuted for destruction of public property without touching the Constitution.

With patriotic instincts heightened by the threat of terrorism and Americans fighting and dying abroad, insults to the flag are bound to provoke anger. But even if such incidents were more common, amending the Constitution would be a dangerous idea, repudiating the lessons of American history.

The Founding Fathers, fresh from oppression and revolution, realized that for their fledgling democracy to succeed, it would need safety valves to release political pressure in times of strife. First among those was the freedom to speak freely and criticize the government without fear.

Wisely, they did not entrust that freedom to legislators who, they knew, would blow with the political winds.

Instead, in the First Amendment to the Constitution, they reserved that right for the people - to be abridged only if two-thirds of each chamber of Congress and three quarters of the states agreed.

The Founders never mentioned flag burning, but the Supreme Court, in 1989 and 1990, ruled that free speech included a right for people to express their grievances by abusing the flag.

Since then, flag-desecration incidents have dropped to almost nothing. But that hasn't stopped those who think they know better than the Founders from trying to rewrite their work. Five times since 1995, the House has approved constitutional amendments that would bar desecration of the flag.

What's next once that precedent is set? An amendment to bar desecration of the Bible? A prohibition on other speech that makes Congress unhappy?

If popularity is the test of free speech, then the right does not exist.

Fortunately, the proposed amendment has failed each time in the Senate - so far. But turnover leaves the potential vote in the Senate much more in doubt this year.

While polling on the subject varies, there's no public outcry for a flag amendment. A study released Friday by the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center in Nashville found 63% opposed to such a constitutional amendment. That's up from 53% a year ago.

Millions of Americans rightfully infuriated by the sight of a burning flag will draw no solace from those numbers, but they have another option. By waving 10,000 flags for every one that's burned, they would say far more than fining a flag burner ever could. They would honor the flag's meaning, too.

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