A Stitch in Haste

It must be an election year:

Sen. Orrin Hatch's proposed amendment to the Constitution allowing Congress to ban desecration of the U.S. flag will be brought up in the Senate in June, setting up a dicey campaign-year debate over free speech rights.

Majority Leader Bill Frist announced Tuesday he will bring the Utah Republican's proposed amendment to the floor at the end of June, just months before voters hit the polls.
...
Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said the proposal needs airing because the U.S. flag "honors the sacrifice of countless brave men and women who died defending our flag and the ideals it represents."

And what would those ideals be exactly? Because they obviously can't include freedom of expression if people -- especially our supposedly wizened and sober Senate leaders -- believe it is proper and permissible, even through the amendment process, to suppress symbolic conduct.

If there can be such a thing as an "unconstitutional constitutional amendment," then a flag-burning amendment would be it. Even more so than the Federal Marriage Amendment.

With two very sad exceptions, every constitutional amendment ever ratified has been an attempt, either directly or indirectly, to increase the legitimacy of the American government. How sad, how very sad, that the two most oft-mentioned potential amendments today could be such humiliating, de-legitimizing, un-American leaps backwards.

To steal a line from Ayn Rand: if these are the kind of people who are for "the American way," then there is no such way any longer.

The proposed amendment is bureaucratically known as S.J.RES.12; House version H.J.RES.10.

(Via How Appealing.)