On November 29, Donald Trump tweeted, “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag—if they do, there must be consequence—perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail.”
The Constitution’s First Amendment “prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Flag burning is a legitimate form of speech. In Texas v. Johnson (1989), Justice William Brennan, writing for the majority, said, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.”
Jefferson said, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance.” Separately he said free speech “cannot be limited without being lost.”
Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall stressed, “But, above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.”
That includes flag burning or calling a public official a son-of-a-bitch—or words to that effect if he or she deserves it.
Compromising academic, press and speech freedoms risks losing all others. If Trump governs this way, he’ll be despotic, breaching fundamental international and constitutional law. Hopefully his tweet was just bluster.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Visit his blog at sjlendman.blogspot.com . Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.
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Trump wants flag burners punished
Posted on December 2, 2016 by Stephen Lendman
On November 29, Donald Trump tweeted, “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag—if they do, there must be consequence—perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail.”
The Constitution’s First Amendment “prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Flag burning is a legitimate form of speech. In Texas v. Johnson (1989), Justice William Brennan, writing for the majority, said, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.”
Jefferson said, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance.” Separately he said free speech “cannot be limited without being lost.”
Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall stressed, “But, above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.”
That includes flag burning or calling a public official a son-of-a-bitch—or words to that effect if he or she deserves it.
Compromising academic, press and speech freedoms risks losing all others. If Trump governs this way, he’ll be despotic, breaching fundamental international and constitutional law. Hopefully his tweet was just bluster.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Visit his blog at sjlendman.blogspot.com . Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.