Flag-Burning Measure Revived By House Panel Earlier Attempt To Override Court Decision Failed In ‘90

Reviving a proposal the House rejected five years ago, a House subcommittee voted on Thursday for a constitutional amendment against desecration of the American flag.

The proposal, approved 7 to 5 by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, would overturn a 1989 Supreme Court decision that held that flag burning was a form of political expression protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.

When the previous attempt to override that decision failed in 1990, it got 254 votes in favor to 177 against, falling 34 votes short of the twothirds majority required for constitutional amendments.

The new effort in a Republicancontrolled House already has 272 cosponsors and seems likely to be adopted in the House. But its prospects in the Senate are unknown. In 1989 the Senate rejected a constitutional amendment, casting 51 votes for it to 48 against, or 15 votes short of the required two-thirds majority.

The newly proposed amendment provides that “Congress and the states shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.” The subcommittee, following a hearing on Wednesday afternoon, voted for it along party lines in a half-hour session on Thursday morning.

Rep. Charles T. Canady, R-Fla., who heads the subcommittee, attacked the 1989 decision for “depriving the people of their right to protect the most profound and revered symbol of our national identity.”

But Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said an amendment would be a mistake, serving to “dignify” such a “despicable and juvenile act” as burning or defacing the flag.

“Free speech exists in this society,” Frank said, “and it protects all manner of expression, inarticulate or articulate, that people find hateful.”

He also complained that the measure did not define “desecration,” and suggested that writing on a flag, for example, might be made a crime.