Flag Protection Quotes

Laws protecting the United States flag do not cut away at the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment... Congress made this position clear upon passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which prohibited desecration of the flag.

I believe that movements to suppress wrongs can be carried out under the protection of our flag.

We are far more concerned about the desecration of the flag than we are about the desecration of our land.

If it [the American flag] is not defended, it is defamed.

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.

To secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force organized and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression.

The colors that float from the masthead should be the credentials of our seamen. There is no safety to us, and the gentlemen have shown it, but in the rule that all who sail under the flag (not being enemies) are protected by the flag.

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.

The American flag is too precious to endanger. [The draft was extended.]

To an active external commerce the protection of a naval force is indispensable ... it is in our own experience that the most sincere neutrality is not a sufficient guard against the depredations of nations at war. To secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force organized and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression. This may even prevent the necessity of going to war by discouraging belligerent powers from committing such violations of the rights of the neutral party as may, first or last, leave no other option…. These considerations invite the United States to look to the means, and to set about the gradual creation of a navy.

Especially today as we fight the war on terror - against an enemy that represents hatred, extremism and stands behind no flag - we need to remember the sacrifices that have gone into protecting our flag.

Unfortunately a Constitutional amendment that would have empowered Congress to make desecration of the United States flag illegal failed to pass by one vote.

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

If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents.

It is the will of the American people that we have a right to protect our flag and this can only be accomplished by passing a Constitutional amendment.