President Donald Trump signed an Executive order to prosecute those who desecrate or burn the American flag. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will refer flag burners to local authorities, and the Department of Homeland Security will also revoke visas for immigrants who desecrate the U.S. flag.
As reported earlier:
President Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders aimed at further cracking down on crime in the nation’s capital and other parts of the country, including one order targeting cashless bail policies and another seeking to crack down on those who desecrate the American flag.
Now it’s important to note there’s a little bit of nuance to this announcement. Personally, I don’t like flag burning. It’s incredibly disrespectful to our troops and to all patriots who support America and the values we stand for. But do I believe that alone should be illegal? No, I do not. It has significant First Amendment implications.
The order seems to be concerned with when you burn the American flag, are you doing it to incite violence or destruction of property – actions that can quickly turn violent, such as a riot? Of course, you can’t start criminalizing everything that you don’t like. We live in a country where you can speak out against your government when you feel like it is doing wrong. That’s what makes America great. This seems less about the act of burning a flag, but the intent behind it – is it a rallying cry to something bigger and more dangerous?
You can expect this issue to be dissected quite a bit, especially in the media and online, over the coming days. We will continue to watch how this develops and keep you updated.
ACLJ Senior Counsel CeCe Heil joined us to offer an update on a major pro-life free speech case we’re currently fighting in Massachusetts, where the state is funding an anti-life smear campaign against pro-life Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRC). We filed a lawsuit against Massachusetts for violating the First Amendment rights of our client, Your Options Medical, a PRC in the state. We show that the U.S. Supreme Court has said that the use of regulatory power to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors violates the First Amendment, which definitely seems to be happening here.
The First Amendment prohibits the government from telling you what you can and cannot say. Thus, viewpoint discrimination is apparently evident in this case in Massachusetts. There was not one complaint against a pro-life center. The state is labeling PRCs as public health threats, which is blatantly and willfully deceptive. They have weaponized the government against pro-life centers and workers and given explicit warnings that their licenses will be revoked. It created an official complaint mechanism to solicit complaints against PRCs. (Spoiler alert: There was not one complaint.)
Now Massachusetts is trying to have our case thrown out – for a second time. We defeated their attempts before, and we just filed a new briefing in the case to do so again.
Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more analysis of President Trump’s latest Executive order. Also, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell weighed in on the FBI’s raid at John Bolton’s house.
Watch the full broadcast below:
