Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990 TAG: 9006130489
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No, the real threat comes from elsewhere - from demagogues in high office prepared to drag Old Glory in the mud for their own imagined political gain, no matter what the damage to American liberties.
Last year, in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right of free expression in a flag-burning case, Congress enacted the unconstitutional Flag Protection Act of 1989. This week, the high court rightly struck it down. So Congress now will consider a constitutional amendment.
That's right: a constitutional amendment permitting laws that would make it a crime to desecrate flags. For two centuries the First Amendment has embodied America's commitment to free expression and stood as a guardian against government censorship or limitation of vigorous public debate. Now, after 200 years, some members of Congress find fault with its guarantees, and would carve out an exception.
Once the First Amendment is amended, how could additional exceptions be prevented? Most Americans are offended by flag-burning. But blacks are offended by racist speech, women by speech that denigrates women, Jews by anti-Semitic speech and displays of swastikas. Should amendments also be passed to exclude those forms of expression from First Amendment protection? Where would the exceptions end?
In fact, the flag cannot really be desecrated because it isn't a holy object. (It isn't unless the government has established a religion - a violation of the First Amendment.) Millions of Americans revere the crucifix too, but there's no law against burning it.
President Bush's call for a constitutional amendment is cynical and irresponsible. Politically, it's a fine way to appear patriotic and arouse public passions. But what's the hysteria about? The Republic is hardly threatened by mobs of flag-burners. It could be threatened by the president's proposal.
As Justice William J. Brennan observed Monday, in an opinion joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Blackmun and Marshall: "Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so revered, and worth revering."
A two-thirds majority is needed to pass a constitutional amendment. Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia's 9th District serves on the House Judiciary Committee, where the amendment has been proposed. His vote could be important. Last September, Boucher voted in favor of the flag-burning statute. Now that it has been ruled unconstitutional, he and his colleagues should resist the temptation to endorse an unprecedented and dangerous constitutional amendment.
by CNB