WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 25 that directs the attorney general to prosecute those caught burning the American flag or desecrating it in other ways.
“You will see flag burning stopping immediately,” Trump said. “The people in our country don’t want to see our flag burned and spit on.”
The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to send appropriate cases to state and local authorities and to pursue charges in line with the First Amendment.
Burning U.S. flags as a form of political protest was popularized during the Vietnam War, leading to the Flag Protection Act of 1968, which outlawed burning, defacing, defiling, mutilating, or trampling the flag.
A Supreme Court ruling in 1989, Texas v. Johnson, overturned the law and declared the act of flag desecration protected as symbolic speech under the First Amendment.
“It was a very sad court, a 5–4 decision,” Trump said.
In that case, a Texas court convicted Gregory Lee Johnson of burning an American flag outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas after marching with protesters.
“The government generally has a freer hand in restricting expressive conduct than it has in restricting the written or spoken word,” Justice William J. Brennan wrote in the court’s opinion. “It may not, however, proscribe particular conduct because it has expressive elements.”
The president said the issue goes beyond speech, as it can lead to violence.
“When you burn the American flag, it incites riots,” Trump said.
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