Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday instructing federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against individuals who burn American flags during protests.
The order tells the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to look at cases where people burned flags and see if they can be charged with other crimes like disturbing the peace or breaking environmental laws.
It is an attempt by Trump to go around a supreme court decision from 1989, when the court ruled 5-4 in Texas v Johnson that destroying the flag is protected political expression under the first amendment.
That court ruling threw out flag-burning laws in 48 states and made it clear that people have the right to burn flags as a way to express their political views.
“All over the country they’re burning flags,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday when he signed the order. “All of over the world they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a 5-4 decision, they called it freedom of speech.
Trump also claimed “you burn a flag, you get one year in jail” as he signed the executive order, but the order itself does not include details about a potential jail sentence.
Trump has long advocated for criminalizing flag burning. In 2016, he posted on social media: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”
Most Americans tend to agree with Trump on this issue. Polling conducted by YouGov in 2020 showed nearly half of Americans support making flag destruction illegal, while about one-third believe it is permissible. An updated YouGov survey from September 2023 found that 59% of Americans now consider burning an American flag during protests to be “always unacceptable”.
