Flag Desecration Amendment - Continued

FLAG DESECRATION AMENDMENT--Continued -- (Senate - June 27, 2006)

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I rise today as well to voice my strong support for a constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to prohibit the desecration of the American flag.

Some of the opponents have spoken today about how important it is that we not use this opportunity to amend the Constitution. The Senator from Illinois referred to the constitutional language, the constitutional sacred language, and question how we could alter what Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers wrote.

I simply point out that in the last 20 years, our colleagues on the other side have on over 100 occasions introduced constitutional amendments. In fact, there was one by the Senator from Illinois a few years back that would abolish the electoral college.

So the question isn't whether we amend the Constitution for this purpose. It seems to me at least the question that has been raised about the Constitution comes down to one's preference for which amendments are in order and which are not.

I have to say that I think an amendment to protect the American flag is in order, not just because it shares a majority and a strong bipartisan support in the Senate but because many of the people who were just alluded to by the Senator from Virginia who have fought and died on behalf of that flag want to see this flag honored.

Look at the veterans organizations in this country--the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Veterans organizations are very much in favor of this amendment. In fact, it has been one of their top priorities. The American Legion for some time now has been trying to get an amendment to the Constitution that would allow Congress to enact laws that would protect the American flag.

As a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, I heard from many veterans on this issue who understandably feel strongly about this flag and rightly view desecration of the flag as an afront.

Many of our veterans have stood in harm's way around the world to protect everything our flag represents. That is why it is a unifying symbol that deserves to be protected from desecration.

The proposed amendment is simple. It says:

The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

It does not amend the first amendment. It simply authorizes Congress to pass a law to protect the flag from desecration.

This amendment, as I said earlier, has overwhelming bipartisan support. Members on both sides of the aisle feel strongly that this flag should be protected.

Our flag is intertwined with some of the most memorable scene's from our Nation's history. It was raised at Mt. Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima, and draped over the side of the stricken Pentagon on September 11. It is what Olympic gold medalists are honored with. It brings comfort to the wife of a fallen soldier. Young schoolchildren pledge their allegiance to our flag. Above all, it symbolizes the freedoms we hold dear, and I believe it should be protected from falling victim when those freedoms are exploited.

Since the birth of our Nation, American soldiers have fought for the ideals our flag represents and look to it for direction and promise on bloody battlefields. The effort we are making here is not something of small consequence. It is an opportunity to debate an issue of critical importance to the American people and to allow the voice of the people to be heard on this critical issue.

I am not a lawyer and most Americans are not lawyers, yet the vast majority of Americans know instinctively that the American flag is something that needs to be protected from desecration. However, right now five unelected lawyers on the Court have decided that desecration of the flag deserves the protection of the first amendment. Five unelected Justices on the Supreme Court decided that Federal and State laws prohibiting flag desecration were unconstitutional. Many of these statutes had stood for generations before these Justices determined that these statutes were unconstitutional.

In fact, four Justices on the Supreme Court completely disagreed with the majority opinion in the flag-burning cases. In fact, Justice Stevens, perhaps one of the most liberal Justices on the Court, wrote a dissenting opinion saying that desecrating the flag is offensive conduct, not speech that deserves protection.

Our Constitution does not belong to the courts. It belongs to the people. And when the courts get it wrong, it is appropriate the people have an opportunity to correct it.

In this case, I believe the opinion of the four Justices ought to be the majority opinion, as do the vast majority of the American people. If two-thirds of the Senate, two-thirds of the House of Representatives, and three-fourths of the State legislatures also believe it should be the majority opinion, then that is a constitutional basis for making it a majority opinion.

The notion that flag desecration is a nonexistent problem is also not factual. As Senator Hatch has noted earlier, there have been several incidents of flag desecration just in the last year, and these are the occasions that were published in the media. They are the ones that we know about.

The House of Representatives has passed this amendment with the required two-thirds majority in each of the past five Congresses, but it has always been bottled up here in the Senate. The Senate last voted on this amendment in the year 2000 when it drew 63 votes. That is a lot of votes, but it is still 4 votes short of the 67 that are needed to pass. This time around, it appears that we are very close to passing this amendment.

Mr. President, I hope my colleagues who are listening to this debate will ultimately come down in favor of supporting what is a very simple, straightforward approach which simply says that Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States. It puts the power in the hands of the Congress--the elected representatives of the people of this country--and the people who ultimately will have the opportunity in the 38 States if this thing is approved here today, with the 67 votes that are necessary to vote on its passage.

So I stand proudly today in support of those veteran organizations who have spoken loudly on this issue--those who have sacrificed and who believe that the American flag is not just ink and cloth, but is a symbol of our freedom, a symbol of our democracy, and it is something that the majority of Americans and those who have served this country and fought to protect it deserve to have protected.

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