Donald Trump’s latest executive order directs the attorney general to prosecute and jail for one year any individual who desecrates the US flag in any way, including burning. Civil rights groups are now questioning whether the new directive is unconstitutional.
A veteran has already gone outside the White House to protest the new executive order and burned the flag to truly test the limits of Trump’s new executive order. The veteran burned a flag and called the president a fascist on a megaphone. When he was escorted from the location by police — users online questioned why he was being arrested and whether the First Amendment is being chipped away by the president.
On the official White House page, the Trump administration argues that they plan on restoring respect and sanctity to the American flag. The administration does acknowledge that flag desecration has long been considered accepted by the Supreme Court ruling of Texas v. Johnson as an action protected under free speech. The case was famously specifically about the burning of the American flag. The landmark ruling was 5-4, deciding that flag burning, although insulting by most Americans’ standards, is an expression of personal liberties.
However, Trump’s new statement claims that an individual can burn the flag in a manner that can incite lawlessness and anti-Americanism. The administration argues that this novel manner of burning flags can be interpreted as “fighting words” and that it is therefore not constitutionally protected. Trump’s administration has already been struggling to defend other executive orders that are far-fetched interpretations of the law, and he’s even losing the patience of the previously very lenient Supreme Court with his political agenda.
This is not the only amendment that the Trump administration is working to erode. There’s habeas corpus and there’s also a report of a case that’s been described as trying to overturn the landmark ruling that enshrined gay couples with the right to marry in the United States. The administration’s interpretation of Texas v. Johnson does seem a little ludicrous because of how hard it would be to ascertain that a flag was burnt to incite lawlessness — but the fact that Roe v. Wade was actually successfully overturned has left many progressives without any taste for humor in this particular issue.
Trump stated at the White House that his new executive order means that if an individual is caught burning the flag now, they will be jailed for a year with no chance for release. Reuters reports Freedom of speech rights group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression retorted with a statement saying, “You don’t have to like flag burning. You can condemn it, debate it, or hoist your own flag even higher. The beauty of free speech is that you get to express your opinions, even if others don’t like what you have to say.”
There has been a lot of push back and, as has been the case lately, it’s very likely that it won’t be long before the executive order is challenged in court. The veteran who has already been arrested will likely challenge the case in court and, with the contradictory executive order and legal precedent, it remains to be seen how this will ultimately pan out.
