Current Events        vs.       Founding Documents

Entry 22               Submitted by: Mark Musselman

Current Event

From: CBS/AP June 26, 2006 (full article available on line)

A constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration died in a Senate cliffhanger Tuesday, a single vote short of the support needed to send it to the states for ratification and four months before voters elect a new Congress.

The 66-34 tally in favor of the amendment was one less than the two-thirds required. The House surpassed that threshold last year, 286-130.
……
President Bush, who supports the amendment, called the failed vote unfortunate and commended Republicans and Democrats who voted to move the ratification process forward. In a statement, Bush said he continued to believe that “the American people deserve the opportunity to express their views on this important issue.”
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It represented Congress’ response to Supreme Court rulings in 1989 and 1990 that burning and other desecrations of the flag are protected as free speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
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VS

Free Speech vs. the use of private property

Founding Document

The US Constitution: The first amendment

The US Constitution; Article V; first clause
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress;

We the People:
Part of the pledge to that flag is; “and to the republic for which it stands….” The majority of people must have favored that proposed amendment. However our constitutional republic protects the liberties of the minority from majority rule; even when they express offensive ideas. May it always be so.