Bid to protect American flag again in wind

Womack cites Senate shift in floating desecration ban

Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., proposed a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the United States flag.
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., proposed a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the United States flag.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., proposed a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the United States flag, his office announced Wednesday.

Congress has tried repeatedly to pass similar restrictions on destroying the flag in the 26 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is political expression protected by the First Amendment. Several civil-liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, oppose the restrictions.

The most recent ban attempt, in 2006, fell one Senate vote shy of the 67 votes necessary to send the measure to the states for ratification. The House passed its version in 2005.

Womack said the previous Senate vote, which occurred before he entered Congress, always bothered him. Then-U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., voted in favor of the amendment and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., voted against.

"It's always just kind of been an aggravating thought to me that our ability to protect the symbol of this nation, to give Congress the authority to protect the symbol of this nation fell one vote short of going to the states," he said Wednesday.

Similar measures have been proposed nearly every year since but have not been brought up for a vote.

A joint resolution creating a constitutional amendment needs approval from two-thirds of the House and Senate members, and passage by three-fourths of state legislatures before the amendment can go into effect. The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, have not been changed since they were approved in 1792.

Womack co-sponsored the joint resolution along with Reps. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., Phil Roe, R-Tenn., Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. It has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Womack of Rogers said the new Republican majority in the Senate and the large Republican margin in the House could make it easier to pass the measure this time. Arkansas now has an all-Republican congressional delegation that includes three members who have co-sponsored similar measures in the past.

"We've got a much friendlier Senate to deal with. This is an opportunity for us to really make a big statement about who we are as Americans," Womack said. "Given the changes that have taken place and the majorities in place in both chambers, now is as good a time as any to reaffirm what we all believe about our beloved America."

One obstacle this year could be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who was one of three Republican senators who opposed the 2006 effort, and he now leads the Senate.

In a 2006 editorial in the Central Kentucky News, McConnell wrote that freedom includes the freedom to burn a flag. "I revere the American flag as a symbol of freedom. But behind it is something larger -- the Constitution."

Before the U.S. Supreme Court's 1989 Texas v. Johnson decision that flag burning was a constitutionally protected form of political expression, nearly every state had a law banning desecration of the American flag. The court's decision invalidated those laws.

Congress quickly passed a federal law to protect the flag, but that was struck down in the court's 1990 United States v. Eichman decision.

"There is not a more symbolic effort that we can make in my strong opinion than ... to answer the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989," Womack said. "It's a thing that needs to be done, is long overdue."

Civil-liberties groups oppose the proposal.

Americans shouldn't give up their freedoms so Congress can restrict how a flag is used, said Rita Sklar, the head of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The First Amendment is what should not be desecrated," Sklar said. "As distasteful as desecration of the flag is to many people, it is the essence of the First Amendment to prevent the government from deciding what is tasteful and what is not."

Sklar pointed to a 1990 speech on the Senate floor by then-U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., who cautioned against altering the Constitution, especially the First Amendment.

"Colleagues ask yourself, because some lunatic in Texas, in Dallas in 1984, decided to burn the flag, is that incident worthy of tinkering with the most precious segment of the Constitution that gives us religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of press?" Bumpers said, adding, "I say no."

Womack said Wednesday that he wasn't going to debate whether he or Bumpers has the right opinion.

"I am a true believer in the Constitution, which is why I'm trying to pursue an amendment to the Constitution to give Congress the authority to protect Old Glory," Womack said. "He's entitled to his opinion, and I respect that, but Steve Womack, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has a different opinion."

Metro on 01/08/2015

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