Please help protect the symbol of our nation
Forty-eight states had laws protecting the flag of our nation from physical desecration. These laws were negated in 1989, by a vote of 5-4, when the Supreme Court ruled that burning the flag of the United States is free speech. That decision went against five previous Supreme Court rulings. So many people were outraged by this lack of respect for the symbol of our nation, that a petition drive to collect 1 million American voters' signatures was launched. The goal was reached and in August 1989 petitions were presented to Congress. In October 1989 a federal statute to protect the flag became law. On the day the new flag-protection law went into effect Shawn Eichmann publicly burned an American flag in protest and was immediately arrested. She was convicted of flag desecration - her appeal was the instrument that challenged the constitutionality of the newly enacted Flag Protection Act of 1989. In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal law unconstitutional; declaring it was in conflict with the First Amendment. Again, the vote was 5-4. The US Supreme Court has made it perfectly clear that the only way to protect the U. S. flag from intentional physical desecration is through a constitutional amendment.
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