Rival Flag-Burning Measures Go to Senate

The Senate Judiciary Committee sent rival measures on flag-burning to the Senate floor today, approving a Democratic bill but also sending along the constitutional amendment President Bush favors--with an unfavorable recommendation.

Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the committee’s ranking Republican, argued that the amendment as well as the proposed statute should get a favorable recommendation.

“The primary interest is not whether we should provide protection for the flag but what is the proper course to provide that protection,” Thurmond said.

But Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the panel’s chairman, said the constitutional amendment proposal “does violence to the First Amendment because it is so broad.”

The Democratic-controlled committee gave 9-5 approval to a proposed statute, sponsored by Biden, that would outlaw flag desecration. The panel voted 8 to 6 to report the constitutional amendment to the full Senate with an unfavorable recommendation.

The push for action to ban flag desecration began after the Supreme Court’s June decision throwing out a Texas law used to convict flag-burning protester Gregory Lee Johnson.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said the committee’s choice was really between a constitutional amendment or no action at all.

“I sincerely doubt that the Supreme Court is going to buy off on this statute,” he said.

But Democrats cited free speech protections and said nationwide interest in the issue has subsided somewhat after the initial uproar.