Want to learn more about American flag burning? Find out about the history of American flag burning and the objections that have been raised against it…
The first amendment in the American constitution states that the congress shall not make any such law which abridges the freedom of speech. This would be taken as a sign of undermining liberty. The burning of the American flag has been used to express certain political and religious viewpoints throughout the history of America. However this is one freedom of expression that the government has prompted to take action against.
It is not only non-Americans with views contradicting that of America that have a history of American flag burning as many people would assume. Rather many Americans have burnt the flag of their own country to express their displeasure with certain prevailing issues.
American Flag Burning History
The first of these incidences that was taken to court was concerning Gregory Johnson who burned the U.S flag in Texas, where it is deemed against the law to do so. The man was trialed and the state ruled in favor of Gregory Johnson who was allowed to go free. Since then the Supreme Court gave the states the right to pass such laws on its own.
In the viewpoint of the Supreme Court the burning of the American Flag is an act that is protected by the first amendment stated above. If the congress wanted to pass anti-flag desecration laws they would have to amend the first constitution which is considered to be the basis of liberty in the country.
There were attempts made to pass such a bill but it was rejected with thirty four votes in 1990. However this concept was surfaced again under the conservative majority a few years ago. It’s not like America has little problems of its own to handle that a large number of representatives and senators are focusing their attention to sign this legislation trying to push the constitution in their favor.
In 1995 the bill was passed by the House of Representatives and made it to the senate. However here it needed a 2/3rd majority to be implemented and it was defeated by three votes only. For most of the Americans this was a big sigh of relief thinking that the issue would never be raised up again. However the issue was most definitely raised up again in 1997. This time the bill failed to pass the senate which refused to vote on it. Once again it was re-introduced into the 106th Congress. It failed to be enforced as the senate refused.
It is most likely that this trend is going to continue and every once in a while there will be a group of congressmen attempting to curb the freedom of expression through American flag burning. It is only the citizens that have the power to influence the congressmen against taking such an action. For now the first amendment stays in place not limiting the freedom of expression of individual citizens in any way whatsoever.
