Flag Desecration Constitutional Amendment. This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment to grant Congress the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the U.S. flag. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who argued for the amendment, stated that it would "once again give Congress the authority to protect the flag from physical desecration…. It would simply overturn a few very recent judicial decisions that rejected America’s traditional approach to the flag under the law." However, if Congress truly wishes to rein in the Supreme Court with regard to flag burning, it can simply exercise its constitutional power to limit the Court’s appellate jurisdiction (Article III, Section 2).
The proposed flag desecration constitutional amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 14, failed to attain the two-thirds majority required and was rejected on March 29, 2000 by a vote of 63-37 (Roll Call 48). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
