Craig Washington Quotes

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.

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

If a jerk burns the flag, America is not threatened, democracy is not under siege, freedom is not at risk.

Offensive or not, those who burn the flag to express their views are exercising a right that our founding generation fought a revolution to secure.

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.

I'm a believer in the Constitution and in the First Amendment. Not just for raising money but also for freedom of speech.

Antonin Scalia was saying, and Donald Trump knows this as well, the answer to it is not to punish people, to shut 'em up, to put 'em in jail. The answer is more speech. If there's some clown burning the flag, drape yourself in the flag and go run around right in the guy's face and start telling him how much you love America. Donald Trump's not gonna put anybody in jail. He's not gonna strip their citizenship. This is how Donald Trump tells people what he thinks about it.

I think that, as Americans, we should never forget that when we tamper with freedom of speech, it is a very sensitive issue that affects all of our constitutional rights and privileges.

As long as I am an American citizen, and as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, being amenable to the laws of my country for the same.

Burning the flag is a form of expression. Speech doesn't just mean written words or oral words. It could be semaphore. And burning a flag is a symbol that expresses an idea - I hate the government, the government is unjust, whatever.

We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.

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.

Burn the flag; that's a freedom. Then I have the freedom to take it away from them and tell them how dumb they are.

Standing up for what you believe in, to me, is freedom of speech. And that's a right that every American citizen has and what makes this country great.

Portland has a long history of embracing the most important of American values. Those are the rights to assembly and the rights to free speech. And we're proud of protecting those core American values.

I believe in the First Amendment.

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.

I know the constitution in Oregon was passed in 1859. Free expression of opinion.

The First Amendment means everything to me.

This is America. Anyone is free to protest about anything they want.

I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.'

Americans may not always live up to the Bill of Rights, but Americans do not ban books.

I would have to have people totally committed to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of this United States. And many of the Muslims, they are not totally dedicated to this country. They are not dedicated to our Constitution. Many of them are trying to force Sharia law on the people of this country.

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

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