Burning the American flag should be punishable by up to one year in prison, President Donald Trump told supporters at his rally in Tulsa over the weekend, Forbes reported.
Trump talked about an incident at a demonstration in Portland when presenting his proposal.
“Two days ago, leftist protesters in Portland, Oregon ripped down a statue of George Washington and wrapped in an American flag, and set the American flag on fire,” the president said.
He then pointed to Oklahoma’s two Republican senators in the crowd at the rally, Jim Inhofe and James Lankford, saying “We ought to come up with legislation that if you burn the American flag, you go to jail for one year."
Trump added that “They talk about freedom of speech and I'm a big believer in freedom of speech, but that's desecration, that's a terrible thing.”
The president has demanded the legislation, even though the US Supreme Court ruled in a 1989 decision that burning an American flag is constitutionally-protected free speech under the First Amendment, Business Insider reported.
In a separate decision the following year the Supreme Court also ruled that federal legislation declaring flag burning a crime violates the constitution.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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