Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 2978 - Flag Protection Act of 1989

(House)
(Brooks (D) Texas and Edwards (D) California)

The Administration strongly supports prompt congressional action to protect the Nation's flag from those who would defile it but believes that enactment of H.R. 2978 is inadequate to provide such protection. The Department of Justice believes that a statutory approach of the kind embodied in H.R. 2978 would not survive Supreme Court review under the principles recently articulated in Texas v. Johnson. Thus, H.R. 2978 would be merely a symbolic gesture and not a serious effort to provide real protection, for the flag. To ensure that the flag is protected in a constitutionally sound manner, the Administration calls on Congress to send a constitutional amendment addressing the problem of flag desecration to the States for ratification, such as the proposed Michel-Montgomery constitutional amendment that is now before Congress.