The Revolutionary Communist Party and Flag Burning During Its Forgotten Years, 1974–1989

R. Goldstein
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Abstract

Origins of the Controversy Since 1989, the American political scene has been convulsed by repeated controversies concerning whether or not “desecrating” the American flag (generally defined as burning or otherwise physically damaging it) should be a criminal offense. The immediate background to these controversies is the 1989 Supreme Court ruling in Texas v. Johnson (subsequently reaffirmed and broadened by the Supreme Court’s 1990 ruling in U.S. v. Eichman), which held that physical flag desecration for the purpose of expressing a political viewpoint is protected under the First Amendment. Ever since these rulings, an organized movement led by the American Legion has sought to amend the Constitution to overrule the Supreme Court and authorize the outlawing of flag desecration. The proposed constitutional amendment was defeated in 1989 and again in 1990 (it received majority backing in both houses of Congress, but not the required two-thirds support required for an amendment). Subsequently it was revived and passed the House by well over the needed two-thirds vote in 1995 and 1997; the proposal failed by three votes in the Senate in 1995 and was never voted on in the Senate before the 105th Congress adjourned, due to crush of other legislative business in late 1998 and especially due to the eclipsing of virtually all other issues in that year by the Monica Lewinsky affair. Amendment backers reintroduced the proposal in early 1999, and as of mid-June were expected to succeed easily once more in the House and were within two votes of victory in the Senate. Since 49 state legislatures have already petitioned Congress to endorse a flag desecration amendment, should Congress pass such an amendment it would almost certainly be ratified by the required three-fourths (38) of the 50 state legislatures and become the firstever change in the First Amendment. The distant origins of the flag desecration controversy date back to the turn of the century, when, in response to pressure from union veterans’ organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic and hereditary-patriotic organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the states began to outlaw flag desecration in response to their complaints that advertising, commercial, or otherwise unorthodox use of flags and flag imagery was demeaning the national symbol. Thus, an 1895 pamphlet issued by the proponents of the early movement to ban flag desecration
被遗忘年代的革命共产党和焚烧国旗,1974-1989
争议的起源自1989年以来,关于“亵渎”美国国旗(通常定义为焚烧或以其他方式对其进行物理破坏)是否应构成刑事犯罪的争议不断,美国政界一直处于动荡之中。这些争议的直接背景是1989年最高法院对德克萨斯州诉约翰逊案的裁决(随后在最高法院1990年对美国诉艾希曼案的裁决中得到重申和扩大),该裁决认为,以表达政治观点为目的的实体亵渎国旗受第一修正案的保护。自从这些裁决之后,由美国退伍军人协会领导的一场有组织的运动一直在寻求修改宪法,以推翻最高法院的裁决,并授权亵渎国旗为非法行为。宪法修正案在1989年和1990年被否决(它在国会两院获得了多数支持,但没有达到修正案所需的三分之二的支持)。随后,该法案在1995年和1997年以超过所需三分之二的票数在众议院获得通过;该提案于1995年在参议院以三票之差失败,在第105届国会休会之前从未在参议院进行过投票,原因是1998年底其他立法事务的压力,特别是由于当年莫妮卡·莱温斯基事件使几乎所有其他问题都黯然失色。修正案的支持者于1999年初重新提出了该提案,到6月中旬,预计该提案将在众议院再次轻松获得成功,并在参议院获得两票的胜利。由于49个州的立法机构已经请求国会批准亵渎国旗修正案,如果国会通过这样一项修正案,它几乎肯定会得到50个州立法机构中所需的四分之三(38)的批准,并成为第一修正案的第一次修改。亵渎国旗争议的起源可以追溯到世纪之交,当时,为了应对来自联邦退伍军人组织(如共和国大军)和世袭爱国组织(如美国革命女儿会)的压力,各州开始将亵渎国旗定为非法,以回应他们的投诉,即广告,商业或其他非正统的使用国旗和国旗图像是贬低国家象征。因此,禁止亵渎国旗早期运动的支持者在1895年发行了一本小册子
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