Marcus Luttrell Quotes

Worrying that banning flag desecration would inhibit free speech reveals a misunderstanding of the flag's fundamental nature.

We all find flag burning repugnant. We find burning crosses repugnant. But they have been burning crosses longer than they have been burning flags and there has been no rush for a constitutional amendment to stop the burning of crosses.

A flag burning Constitutional amendment would rip the fabric of the Constitution at its very center.

The right to free speech is critical to our democracy.

I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.

I support the ability of people to be able to burn the American flag if they want to. But people have the right in this country to debate it.

Since we don't have a tyrant or a dictator, we can't put people who are burning flag in jail. But Donald Trump is telling you what he thinks of 'em. He's not gonna do anything of the sort. This is where people go off the rails with Trump, with this literal business and so fort

Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.

Any time someone carries a picket sign in front of the White House, that is the First Amendment in action.

Flag desecration is not a constitutional issue for the courts. It is a political one that belongs to the people.

Those people who want to express their religious beliefs on public property should enjoy the same rights that we provide to those protesting the war in Iraq.

The First Amendment is not without limits.

I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.

The Supreme Court decision [Texas v. Johnson, 1989] does not in any way indicate the government is backing off from forcing the flag on people. They just don't want to look too dictatorial in the way they do it.

The Constitution does not allow the unnecessary trammeling of free expression, even for the noblest of purposes.

There is no indication - either in the text of the Constitution or in our cases interpreting it - that a separate judicial category exists for the American flag alone. ... We decline ... therefore to create for the flag an exception to the … principles protected by the First Amendment.

If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch. Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

If the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech and press is to mean anything, it must allow protests even against the moral code that the standard of the day sets for the community.

When Government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought. This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.

We have the First Amendment to rely on whenever an elected official tries to impinge on our rights to speak.

In the U.S., free speech and the press are protected by the First Amendment. It has a clarity unmatched by modern legislators and declares that 'Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.'

We have a First Amendment right to burn the flag as symbolic speech. The Constitution protects that right. To spend time and effort on this is ridiculous.

Oliver Darcy is a perpetual victim. He is constantly advocating for people to be banned and silenced. As a member of the media, Oliver Darcy should respect our First Amendment right.

I think my patriotism is strong enough to not be offended when somebody takes a knee during the anthem. That's not something I take personally.

The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.