badgenome said:
DrStephenTColbert said:
badgenome said:
DrStephenTColbert said:
Technically, everyone is right. While the Supreme Court ruled (in the 70's I think) that burning the American flag was constitutionally protected, congress passed a law a couple of years ago (I'm thinking 2006) making the burning of the American flag illegal. Funny thing is that the Flag Code states that any flag that is no longer fit should be destroyed by fire, as flags aren't supposed to end up at the town dump.
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No, sir. The Supreme Court struck down all anti flag burning legislation in 1989, and again 1990. In 2006, there was an attempt to override the Supreme Court by amending the Constitution, but it failed in the Senate.
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Thanks for the clarification man. I appreciate it.
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It only failed by one or two votes, IIRC, so you were close!
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I remember reading an interview with John Paul Stevens where he said that the flag burning supreme court decision was the only one he felt badly about. He voted to ban the flag burning, but was outvoted (7-2, I think). After it was made legal, he said, the effect was opposite to what he expected. Less people burned the flag because it wasn't an act of civil disobedience. Some people, it would appear, burned the flag so that they could go to jail for their beliefs.
