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 nonetheless opposes enactment of H.R. 2978. The Department of Justice believes that a statutory approach of the kind embodied in H.R. 2978 — or, indeed, any statute — would likely not survive constitutional scrutiny under the principles recently articulated by the Supreme Court 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. In an effort to remedy the problem, the Administration calls on Congress to vote out and send to the States for ratification a constitutional amendment addressing the problem of flag desecration, such as the proposed Michel-Montgomery constitutional amendment that is now before Congress.