by People for the American Way

About the author: People for the American Way is an organization that fights for constitutional freedoms, justice, and civil rights.

If passed and ratified, a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration would be the first in our nation's history to restrict the core freedoms in our Bill of Rights.

Passage and ratification of the flag desecration amendment would cause serious and irrevocable damage to the architecture of the Constitution and the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, the very freedoms that separate the United States from totalitarian regimes and that make the United States a beacon of liberty to the world.

The Effects of a Flag Amendment

As discussed below, while the long-term consequences of such an unprecedented change to our fundamental charter cannot be fully known now, which is reason...