House Panel OKs Proposal to Ban Flag-Burning

A House panel on Thursday opened a new era for long-languishing flag-burning legislation, giving its approval for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit desecration of the Stars and Stripes.

In a vote that split along partisan lines, the House Judiciary Committee’s constitutional subcommittee sent the proposed amendment to the full Judiciary Committee, which is expected to move it quickly to a vote by the full House.

For the amendment to become part of the Constitution, 290 House members and 67 senators must vote for it and 38 state legislatures must ratify it.

Backers on Thursday predicted speedy approval for the politically sensitive legislation. After the subcommittee vote, Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.) predicted that it “will be ratified faster than any other constitutional amendment put before the American people.”

A similar amendment failed in 1990 when Democrats controlled Congress. But the Republican victory last November, which gave the GOP majorities in both chambers, has given supporters new hope that they can win this year.

The latest drive to adopt a flag-burning amendment comes after the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that destroying the nation’s symbol is a form of free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution.

That decision proved unpopular in some quarters and Republican politicians, with the strong support of veterans groups, have since sought to amend the Constitution to exempt desecration of the flag from the free-speech clause.

Solomon contended Thursday that 80% of Americans and 49 state legislatures want the measure passed. “Burning the flag is not speech or expression. It is a hateful tantrum,” he said.

But committee Democrats, as well as one Republican witness, argued that amending the Constitution to punish flag-burning would erode citizens’ rights and elevate an insignificant form of protest to a level above its due. Fewer than 45 flag-burning incidents have been reported in the nation’s history, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said on Thursday.

Conservative Republican Clint Bolick, vice president of the Institute for Justice, joined in the opposition. “I am not here to defend flag desecration, of course, but to urge members of this body . . . against committing a far more regrettable act: constitutional desecration,” Bolick said.

The House is expected to vote on the amendment next month. Supporters said that they have 272 House co-sponsors and 54 Senate co-sponsors.