Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Speak Up! Speak Out! Save the First Amendment

At dawn, Donald Trump tweeted: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”
With a Republican Congress in tow, this threat to our civil liberties must be taken seriously.
Here is a key passage from Texas v. Johnson, a Supreme Court case that ruled a flag desecration law violated the First Amendment:

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

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