Trump suggests ‘consequences’ for any flag-burners
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this July 20 photo, a law enforcement officer takes Gregory “Joey” Johnson into custody after he started to burn an American flag in Cleveland, during the third day of the Republican convention.
WASHINGTON >> President-elect Donald Trump said that anyone who burns an American flag should face unspecified “consequences,” such as jail or a loss of citizenship. But the Supreme Court has held that flag-burning is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment, and top congressional Republicans quickly distanced themselves from Trump’s views.
Trump’s words, expressed on Twitter early this morning, put him at odds with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was in the majority in the 1989 decision that protected flag burning.
“Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” Trump said in a tweet.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the tweet.
Trump has called Scalia, who died in February, a great judge and said he would appoint someone to fill Scalia’s seat who is much like the conservative legal icon.
But in 1989, Scalia signed onto an opinion written by the liberal Justice William Brennan that struck down a criminal conviction under Texas law for burning a flag during a political protest.
Asked about that vote decades later in an interview on CNN, Scalia said he would outlaw flag-burning “if I were king.” But the First Amendment exists to protect “speech critical of the government. That’s the main type of speech tyrants would seek to suppress,” he said.
The White House echoed today that the First Amendment should prevail in such matters.
“We have a responsibility as a country” to carefully protect the rights enshrined in the Constitution, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, adding that the burning of the U.S. flag offends most Americans, himself included.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that he does not “support or believe in the idea of people burning the American flag. I support the First Amendment.” He added that Congress has no plans to take action against flag burning.
And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky weighed in against Trump too, saying: “The Supreme Court has held that that activity is a protected First Amendment right, a form of unpleasant speech, and in this country we have a long tradition of respecting unpleasant speech. I happen to support the Supreme Court’s decision on that matter.”
47 responses to “Trump suggests ‘consequences’ for any flag-burners”
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I don’t like flag being burned/trampled but the Supreme Court is right.
When he suggests taking away a person’s citizenship, Trump once again shows his disregard for and ignorance of the Constitution. In Efroyim v. Rusk, the Supreme Court ruled that:
“The very nature of our free government makes it completely incongruous to have a rule of law under which a group of citizens temporarily in office can deprive another group of citizens of their citizenship. We hold that the Fourteenth Amendment was designed to, and does, protect every citizen of this Nation against a congressional forcible destruction of his citizenship, whatever his creed, color, or race. Our holding does no more than to give to this citizen that which is his own, a constitutional right to remain a citizen in a free country unless he voluntarily relinquishes that citizenship.”
“While she was senator of New York, Clinton co-sponsored the Flag Protection Act of 2005, which would have outlawed “destroying or damaging a U.S. flag with the primary purpose and intent to incite or produce imminent violence or a breach of the peace.
“The purpose of this Act is to provide the maximum protection against the use of the flag of the United States to promote violence while respecting the liberties that it symbolizes,” the bill reads.
The bill called for up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine to those found guilty of burning the flag. If one was to burn the flag on federal land, the punishment was ratcheted up to a $250,000 fine and two years in prison.
Pure pandering on Clinton’s part. Congress never considered this bill, probably because there is no way to determine whether a flag burner’s intent was to exercise their Constitutional right of free speech or to incite a riot. Perhaps it’s indicative of shortcomings in our educational system when politicians of either party appeals to voters by proposing blatantly un-Constitutional measures.
Your obsession with HRC hasn’t diminished. Enjoy your anger.
And you’re still upset about your devastating LANDSLIDE upset LOSS?
Don’t worry be happy.
Jan. 20, 2017 #MAGA
Keonigohan, Nate Silver blows up your “landslide” nonsense: “in a historical context, Trump’s Electoral College performance is decidedly below-average. So it’s a bit Orwellian to call it a “landslide” or a “blowout.” There have been 54 presidential elections since the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804. (Before that, presidential electors cast two votes each, making it hard to compare them to present-day elections.) Of those 54 cases, Trump’s share of the electoral vote — assuming there are no faithless electors or results overturned by recounts — ranks 44th.”
I do not believe in burning of the US flag, however, I think Trump is trying to make a point. Even though there may be ideals, rules and beliefs implemented into the US Constitution, it does not negate from an opinion. While I do not want to see our flag burned, I would not want to substitute that for my various freedoms which are written within our constitution.
Much like same sex marriage and the likes-I was not raised in that manner, but, the need for equality and rights outweighs my personal opinion, and, I am OK with it.
Like your comment GONEGOLFIN!
2nd that.
Well said.
I think that we are all (unusually) in agreement on this. Even Justice Scalia agreed. I would never harm our flag and I don’t want to see it harmed but I venerate the First Amendment also.
This is just typical bull from the Donald. Why anyone would listen to this clown is beyond me. He is doing nothing but diverting attention away from his various broken promises. Remember lock her up? How about the wall? How about fighting the law suits against Trump University? By tossing red meat, it diverts attention from what a failure this clown will be. Hopefully the stock market will not be totally destroyed.
I don’t like the flag being burned/trampled. No buts.
Thank You. Touch my flag, meet my Louisville Slugger…as I express my free speech.
You suppose to burn the flag if it touches the ground or it is too worn to fly. Just don’t toss it in the trash.
My concern is how much and often Trump tweets. I know that this is a modern method of communication, but it just seems like he has a very thin skin and needs to comment on every issue right away. Like email and texting, once you tweet, you can’t take it back. I foresee him doing a lot of apologizing in the future.
I don’t think he’ll apologize for anything. Especially if he believes he’s right side up on any (every) issue. Change the subject, yes. Apologize, not so much.
NYT…….. President Trump gets “Carrier” to STAY! First Ford Motor Co.& now Carrier.Yaaaaayyyy!
Plans “A Thank You Rally” in Ohio! Braaaaaahh ! This guy is a “Rock Star”! Even before being sworn in! Go Trump!
^5 It’s happening!!
#MAGA
That’s funny you mention getting Ford to stay. Ford was never leaving.
if you are a non U.S. citizen then you can take away there green card and throw them in jail or deport them and they can never come back because of burning the U.S. flag that is a right for citizens of the U.S. only. and SA get the AP to write about the recount that stein is doing she can’t do Pennsylvania because the deadline pass, so the recount is all over trump is the president and all the crybabies who were wishing on a fairy tale that would overturn the election can now go back to there color crayons and playing with clay to help the liberal mental disorder depressed mind.
When someone wants to deliberately burn the American Flag, they are just saying F this country or some other problem they don’t like about America, so boot them out. Whats his name who complained about America and he was sentence to life on a ship never to see America again. You don’t like America then get the L out.
agree I wish that would happen, but the liberals and the news media brainwashed half of the Americans for the last 30 years or more and so they get this so called right which is treason to burn U.S. flags, kick them out, lets go burn the Quran and see how they like it.
Yes, there should be consequences for burning the flag. If flag burning is so-called protected free speech, then let’s find another reason to punish offenders. Smoke pollutes the air, so let’s make it a violation of the Clean Air Pollution Act or some such thing. Laws also could be passed to require permits to burn flags just as we do to set off fire-works. Charge a hefty fee for flag burning permits and mandate severe penalties for those who burn flags without permits. Ridiculous? Maybe, but so is the burning of the US flag.
Ridiculous?
Yes.
Klastri, I thought of one more to add the list which may not be ridiculous – hate speech. Hate speech is defined as speech that attacks, threatens, or insults a person or group on the basis of national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. Flag burning insults me based on my national origin, that being American. Therefore, flag burners should be prosecuted for hate speech.
Oh and of course burning oil. Yes, it’s doing the most damage to our ecosystem.
Most of these flag burning scenes are already violating some kind of local law or ordinance, such as an unlawful gathering, obstructing traffic, etc. They are rarely cracked down on by local cops. Too difficult. Much easier to sit by the side of the road and pull over someone.
Mr. Trump and his supporters railed against political correctness, and praised being politically incorrect. Except, of course, if it’s politically incorrect speech Mr. Trump doesn’t like. Like flag burning, for instance. Plus, he doesn’t understand that citizenship cannot be stripped.
This again shows how spectacularly unfit Mr. Trump is. He’s a psychotic. People who voted for him should be ashamed of themselves.
Klastri, you are wrong on this one. Citizenship of naturalized US citizens can be stripped through a process called “denaturalization.” It has been done many times. I am sure you know that but simply failed to clarify that in your comment.
Many times? Is that what you meant to write?
Denaturalization occurs very rarely and most often for offenses like war crimes or Nazi activity during World War 2. And for fraud during the naturalization process. It’s not part of this conversation.
I’m not sure why you would try to confuse the discussion with this ridiculous red herring.
Mr. Trump is a psychotic. That’s a fact. The people who voted for him should all be ashamed of themselves.
Klastri, you made a statement of fact that citizenship cannot be stripped. I proved you wrong. That is a fact.
Klastri, Ronin006 called you on your ignorance, and you compound your error by misusing “red herring.” For a better understanding of this logical fallacy, you need look no further than your own post, where you attempt to switch to the issue of Trump voters. The topic in Ronin006’s reply is your ignorance of the law — not Trump voters. For someone who tries so hard to appear to be intelligent, your poor choice of words, including “ridiculous” and “psychotic,” raises questions about the quality of your education. You owe Ronin006 an apology.
You must have a lot of friends.
The flag is a symbol. The physical flag is just a thing. Say someone burns a flag but you did not learn of this happening. Then nothing, right?
(1) Trump succeeds in making flag burning a crime.
(2) Trump makes it a felony to insult the president.
(3) If you don’t say “Heil, Trump!”, you get sent to a nice camp where you’ll finally have time to learn Russian.
The point is, if anyone succeeds in outlawing flag burning, the next step is more drastic reduction of freedom of speech.
Whoever says “flag burners should move to a different country” are missing the most important thing that Makes America Great Now, freedom of speech. If you don’t understand that, YOU should move to another country.
There are a lot of nice countries where you can get arrested for criticizing the government: North Korea, Russia, China, etc. Do you really want the USA to go in that direction?
Exactly. Mr. Trump, remarkably, appears to be completely ignorant of the Constitution. He wants to be King, as he is inside his company. He has a gold throne in his living room, after all.
He has no idea what he’s in for.
Goofball klastri agreeing with a monkey. Classic. Get over it scrubs. Or maybe, don’t get over it and keep commenting. You guys better than Comedy Club. Trump wins 2 terms. That means 8 years of comic relief.
@ meat lol ^5
Who Let The Monkeys OUT?
MillionMonkeys, our legislature outlawed drinking of alcoholic beverages and smoking for people under age 21. Since they were able to do that, the next step they take could be a more drastic thing like the freedom to vote at age 18. Well, why not? If people are not responsible enough to drink or smoke at age 18, why should they be allowed to vote?
By what he says one could conclude Trump wants his views to have authority over Constitutional rules. Do we have here an emerging dictator?
I think the matter of flag burning should be left up to the citizen’s that paid with their lives to protect it and it’s principles, the American soldier. Let them apply their voices to whether or not it is a form of ‘Free Speech’ or not.
Leaving such a decision to politician’s and the liberals who have not set their foot on the battlegrounds at home and on foreign soil nor shed their blood in support of it’s colors is not justified,fair or in the interest of true Americans. The actions of those that desecrate the American flag are merely espousing a false doctrine of free speech for their convenience and the perpetrators use flag burning as a means to demonstrate their most utmost disdain for order, respect and American morality. Flag burners need to leave the country.
Good idea; let’s leave such a decision up to Trump, who would have set his foot on a battleground if he hadn’t received 5 deferments and a boo-boo on his heel.
Funny how the two flag burning culprits are covering their faces like cowards.