Mitch McConnell Quotes
A flag burning Constitutional amendment would rip the fabric of the Constitution at its very center.
Mitch McConnell, U, S, Senate Minority & Majority Leader
U. S. Senator (Republican, KY), December 1995Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Responding to George W. Bush's call for a constitutional amendment to make burning of the American flag illegal:
Referring to the Supreme Court decision, Texas v. Johnson (1989), in which flag burning was held to be constitutionally protected speech:
In this case, the Supreme Court held that burning or desecrating the American flag may not be prohibited or criminalized by the government. Flag burning, they ruled, is symbolic speech and is protected by the 1st amendment just like political pamphlets.
This statement was made After the Senate straw-voted 58-42 in favor of a constitutional amendment against flag burning, less than the two-thirds required by the Constitution.
Trump was then President Elect who already had a large staff helping him fomake the transition. He still went off on his own with this state,ment whiich runs afoul of the Constitution which he would soon sware to defend when he took the Oath of Office. The Supreme Court had unequivocably ruled that the burning of the flag was a type of political speech and as such could not be curtailed or punished by the government. The penalty of a loss of citizenship was another constitutional thicket. In addition. in the hisoty of the country,, it had never been used as a punishment for breaking domestic law.
Twenty year prison sentences were imposed for publishing left wing Bolshevik literature. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court:
Striking down a law making cross burning a crime:
He had been fired by the George W. Bush White House because he would not rush an indictment against a democratic politician to make the newspapers before the election that year thus being “loyal” to the party and administration.
Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. is an American politician, serving since 1985 as United States senator for Kentucky, the senior senator since 1999, and since January 20, 2021, as Senate Minority Leader. He previously served as Senate Majority Leader from 2015 to 2021. He is married to former Secretary of Transportation and former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. In 2015 and 2019, Time listed McConnell as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
