Top > World > 2006 > June > 2006-06-29

Flag Burning Amendment Fails in Senate

A proposed amendment before the U.S. Senate that would have made it illegal to burn the American flag failed to pass by one vote on Tuesday. Sixty-six senators voted for the amendment, one vote shy of the sixty-seven needed for an amendment to the United States Constitution. All fifty U.S. states have formally requested from the Congress an amendment to ban flag-burning. The sixty-six votes for banning flag burning were three more than were gained the last time the issue came to a vote, in 2000.

Republicans hoped to galvanize ?conservative? voters by officially protecting a symbol of the United States, but Democrats see the issue differently ? in terms of protecting freedom of expression. According to Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, ?This amendment would, for the first time, amend the Bill of Rights. The most important principle of all - the principle that has made this country a beacon of hope and inspiration for oppressed peoples throughout the world - is the right of free expression.?

Fourteen Democrats, though, disagreed with Senator Feingold, and voted along with Republicans for the amendment. Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, who was the bill?s chief sponsor, said ?Nobody loses a thing by voting for this, and we gain a great deal by supporting our troops, our veterans.? The proposed amendment have empowered Congress to ?prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.? According to the Supreme Court of the United States, flag burning is protected by the First Amendment.