Anti-U.S. Flag Desecration Amendment Passes in House

The House approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday that would ban desecration of the American flag, marking the fourth time in six years that the House has passed such a measure.

The 298-125 vote gave the amendment the two-thirds margin it needed for approval, but its prospects in the Senate are dim. In past years, the measure failed to get a two-thirds vote in the GOP-controlled Senate; now, with Democrats in control, the chances appear even more remote.

The proposed “flag desecration amendment” has become a perennial fixture in Congress, particularly around the Flag Day and Independence Day holidays.

If Congress passes the measure this time, the proposal would have to be ratified by three-fourths of the nation’s state legislatures. The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted flag-burning and desecration as a symbolic form of free speech, protected under the 1st Amendment, and has invalidated past attempts by Congress and individual states to ban the practice. The rebuffs prompted efforts for an amendment that would give Congress constitutional permission to ban the practice.

Tuesday’s vigorous debate lasted more than three hours.

An emotional Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-San Diego), who co-sponsored the resolution, described a flag desecration incident involving a friend who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and had sewn an American flag to the inside of his shirt. A prison guard tore it off and beat him, but when the prisoner regained consciousness, he gathered the remaining threads and stitched them back together.

“This is more than a piece of cloth,” a teary-eyed Cunningham said.

But Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.) said that, while he deplores desecration of the flag, “I firmly believe that passing this constitutional amendment would abandon the very values and principles that this country was founded on.”