FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON - Noting that free expression and the right to dissent are among
the core principles which the American flag represents, the American Civil
Liberties Union today expressed its disappointment that a key Senate panel
failed to protect the Constitution when it passed the Flag Desecration
Amendment. The House passed the Flag Desecration Amendment by a narrow
eight-vote margin last year.
"If we take away the right to dissent - no matter how unpopular - what
freedom will be sacrificed next?" said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the
ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "The First Amendment must be protected most
when it comes to unpopular speech. Failure to do so fails the very notion of
freedom of expression. We urge the full Senate to reject election year politics
and stand for the Constitution."
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and
Property Rights today approved S.J.R. 12, the Flag Desecration Amendment, which
would allow Congress to criminalize any "physical desecration" of the American
flag. If adopted, it would be the first time the Constitution has been used to
restrict freedoms since Prohibition. The ACLU noted that proposals to ban flag
desecration or burning have been consistently rejected by the Supreme Court and
Congress since first introduced in the late 1980s, and polls have shown the
public has grown increasingly averse to including censorship in the
Constitution.
The ACLU pointed to a survey released in early June of 2005 by the First
Amendment Center in which 63 percent of those polled said that the Constitution
"should not be amended to prohibit burning or desecrating the American flag."
This number was 10 percentage points higher than the same survey conducted last
year. The same survey found that support for the amendment dropped from 45
percent last year to 35 percent this year.
Opposition to the amendment remains ideologically broad. Former Secretary of
State and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell said in a
1999 letter, "The First Amendment exists to insure that freedom of speech and
expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also
that which we find outrageous." In addition to Powell, former Senator John Glenn
and former Reagan Defense Department official Lawrence J. Korb, have all spoken
out against the proposal. Veterans Defending the Bill of Rights, Veterans for
Peace and Veterans for Common Sense have also been vocal in their opposition.
"If this measure passes, it would put the symbol above the values it
represents," said Terri Ann Schroeder, an ACLU Senior Lobbyist. "The strength of
our democracy is that we tolerate all peaceful forms of expression, no matter
how uncomfortable they make us feel, or how much we disagree. We hope that the
Senate will ultimately reject this attack on the Constitution."
For more on the ACLU's concerns with the Flag Desecration
Amendment, go to: www.aclu.org/flag
