Timothy Birdnow

Donald Trump has authorized the DOJ to investigate flag burning in an executive order he recently signed.

The Supreme Court ruled flag burning is protected speech in a 1989 ruling. But Trump is arguing it is not always protected, most especially where it incites violence. It is tantamout to "fighting words", which the Court has ruled is an exception to free speech protections.

Trump aslo said foreigners could have their visas revoked and face deportation, something guaranteed not to sit well with the spread-legs-for-alien Left.

SCOTUS ruled in a 5-4 vote that flag burning was protected speech. In that ruling Justice William Brennan authored a majority opinion which Justices Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy concurring (Scalia must have had one too many Manhattans at lunch that day.) So it was a partisan vote except for Scalia, who no doubt ruled based on fears of any restrictions on free speech.

It is, perhaps, time to revisit this. Certainly that is what Trump is intending; he knows the lower courts will strike this down and it will wind up at SCOTUS. At a minimum he is getting a lot of good publicity (most Americans think flag burning is despicable) and he might prevail after all. I wouldn't want to rely on Roberts and Barret though.

In the end this is a winning issue. You may remember Geoerge H. W. Bush was elected on this issue among some others; the public was solidly behind laws against flag burning. While those numbers may have changed some, it's still a solid majority that thinks flag burning should be illegal. Burning the American flag is not so much a protest against any policy of the nation but a big F-U to the nation itself. It's a rejection of our hospitality and our very identity. It's no different than openly calling a black person an N. Fighting words.

Now I rather do not think it should be illegal myself, but I also think anyone who does it and if it leads to violence then there should be charges of mayhem or other such. You can't poke your finger in someone's eye purposely and expect to be afforded the protections of the United States, not when you just told the United States to go ef themselves.

At any rate I doubt Trump will win this but he's going to win in the court of public opinion, and in some ways that is even better. In some ways.

This will be interesting. And it's always fun watching liberal heads explode.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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