President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that anyone who burns an American flag should face unspecified “consequences,” such as jail or a loss of citizenship — a move that was ruled out by the Supreme Court nearly three decades ago.
Trump took to Twitter early Tuesday morning, stating, “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”
It was not immediately clear what prompted the tweet.
The president-elect’s tweet is a direct conflict with free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. It came as he prepared to name a secretary of state and transportation secretary.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag-burning is “expressive conduct” protected by the First Amendment.
Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., took issue with the tweet. “We want to protect those people who want to protest….I disagree with Mr. Trump on that,” Duffy said Tuesday on CNN’s “New Day”.
Duffy is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s panel on oversight and investigations.
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
(AP)
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13 Responses
If it’s OK to burn the flag in disagreement with your country’s politics, why not a government building or an army base?
And if the left is so embarrassed of its country, there are many other lands which would welcome those huddled masses yearning to be free.
Why does he continue to make such stupid comments?? Take away his computer. SCOTUS (including the conservative justices) has already ruled that laws restricting flag burning violate the first amendment and it is a protected form of “free speech” in the same way that his own incendiary comments are protected speech.
America is a sick place… it’s the only country in the world where you can burn the flag but you can go to jail for ripping the tag off a mattress.
i agree with him completly, if you burn the flag get out, no jail out of the country, especially immigrants.
Mr. Trump should, as do most civil servants, learn that when you post something online, and in doing so are identifiable as a government employee, you need to include a disclaimer that this is not a policy statement from your agency. Donald Trump the citizen has the right to favor anything, even if Donald Trump the soon-to-be government employee is subject to many laws and the constitution restricting his actions.
#2 , i wished you would have retired from commenting your idiotic posts after your friend Hilary lost.
I applaud Mr. Trumps stance. If anything it should have been stronger; anyone burning an American flag in the USA, should be deported to their country of origin. If you don’t like it here, leave.
I applaud Mr. Trumps stance. If anything it should have been stronger; anyone burning an American flag in the USA, should be deported to their country of origin. If you don’t like it here, leave.
Looking at burning the American flag as free speech can only be condoned by Democratic extreme liberals who have set out to ruin our country; and unfortunately are doing well.
#2 is right!
lets get some clarity here. trump isnt saying that its illegal to burn the flag. obviously scotus ruled on that already. what he is saying is that it should be rendered illegal and maybe he will move to change it to that effect. personally i agree with him not that i really care either way. if someone burns the flag who cares. doesnt mean anything. doesnt change anything. just make sure it doesnt start a wild fire thats all
To No. 5
Even the most conservative Republicans today are calling Trump’s comments “confusing”, “misguided” or “ill-informed” (and those are the nice ones). Justice Scalia authored a critical opinion on the flag burning issue years ago where he distinguished his personal repulsion of the “long-haired, sandle wearing hippies etc. engaging in flag burning” from their 100% protected first amendment rights to do so. I guess Scalia would never have made it through Trump’s vetting process for the Supreme Court. Any attempt by a federal official to prosecute flag burning would be laughed out of court as well as potentially subjecting the prosecutor to charges under the rules governing frivolous criminal prosecutions. If Trump wants to begin the process of amending the Constitution to carve out flag-burning from the first amendment, that would be great since it would likely consume most of his term and keep him from undertaking even more stupid actions.
guess what. just because someone is president elect doesn’t mean he loses his first amendment rights.
doesn’t mean he’ll do it. he’s not Castro.
#2/ #10 .Just because its within the law to burn its Right! Soddom had laws .” Whats mine is mine “and we know what happened there. Your bias against Trump is a disgrace . He cares about his country and hes actually good hearted towards yidden, You should be ashamed of yourself as a frum Jew .
Youtumah. No one said it’s right! Trump said he will punish. Fact? He can’t that’s all.