Burning the Flag

Kenny Tran

Donald Trump has proposed an idea for Americans who burn the American flags. He suggested people who burn the flag should have possible jail time or loss of citizenship.

He tweeted on Tuesday, Nov. 29, “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”  

Regardless of his thoughts, the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is a form of freedom of speech. The Supreme Court has confirmed this twice, once in a case before the high court in 1989 and 1990.

In response, a CNN legal analyst Steve Vladeck says, “In addition to ignoring the Supreme Court’s clear teaching that flag burning is constitutionally protected speech, Mr. Trump’s tweet also casually suggests that citizens should lose their citizenship as a ‘penalty’ for such acts.”

Vladeck continued to say, “Even if flag burning wasn’t protected, it would still be unconstitutional to deprive someone of their citizenship without some voluntary act on their part to renounce their allegiance to the United States or pledge fealty to a foreign sovereign.”

The topic of flag burning is a controversial one, yet it is not likely the Supreme Court will agree with his proposal.