Why Donald Trump and Josh Hawley Are Wrong To Call for Jailing People Who Burn the American Flag
One of the more relevant maxims today, particularly in the age of social media, is the fact that saying the same thing over and over again does not make it a reality. There are many people—across the political spectrum—who should internalize this.
President Donald Trump is one of them. While speaking at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, he re-upped an idea he has floated many times: “People that burn the American flag should go to jail for one year,” he told a crowd of U.S. service members in a now-viral clip. “And we’ll see if we can get that done.”
They cannot, in fact, get that done.
Trump is, of course, entitled to oppose flag burning on moral grounds. Many understandably find the act tasteless and offensive, as is their right. His administration will not be able, however, to address that using the blunt force of the law, as the highest law of the land already protects it as a form of free expression.
This isn’t new. “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment,” wrote U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in 1989, “it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” That came from his opinion in Texas v. Johnson, in which the Court said it was unconstitutional when Texas used a law criminalizing flag desecration to prosecute Gregory Lee Johnson, who had burned an American flag to protest President Ronald Reagan during the Republican National Convention. Johnson was sentenced to one year in jail. Sound familiar?
Some lawmakers weren’t happy with the Cou
Article from Reason.com
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