Flag Fever
“If we don’t do something now,” said their message, “we’ll destroy our own businesses, our own industry, the very fabric of our nation . . .”
ABC’s safe for now. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court struck down by a five-to-four vote the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which was written to impose criminal penalties on anyone who “knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defouls, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States.” (With one considerable loophole: “Any conduct consisting of the disposal of a flag when it has become worn or soiled” would have been permitted.) The Supreme Court ruled that the Flag Protection Act violated the First Amendment.
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“We all exploit the flag to make our points,” he went on. “We exploit the flag by waving it on Flag Day. We exploit it by showing our pride. And the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the right of flag haters to exploit it to show their hatred.”
He drew a curious parallel. “In today’s marketplace of ideas,” he wrote, “the public burning of a Vietnam draft card is probably less provocative than lighting a cigarette. Tomorrow flag burning may produce a similar reaction.”
Bold Ideas in Truancy Control
