Bush to Let Flag-Burning Bill Become Law but Won’t Sign It

President Bush said Friday that he will not veto a bill to ban flag burning even though he will continue trying to amend the Constitution as a stronger way to accomplish the same end.

“I don’t think it’s enough,” Bush said of the flag legislation.

The President said that he will allow the recently passed bill to become law automatically without his signature but added that he does not think the law will withstand legal challenges.

“I’m withholding that signature to signal our belief that a constitutional amendment is the best way to provide lasting protection for the flag,” Bush told reporters at a White House news conference.

A storm of controversy regarding the U.S. flag arose after the Supreme Court overturned a Texas conviction last June, ruling that protesters could legally burn the flag under constitutional free-speech guarantees.

Bush proposed a constitutional amendment against flag desecration, but Congress chose to deal with the matter through legislation.

The measure imposes a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for anyone who “knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground or tramples upon any flag of the United States.”