Flag Desecration Amendment

The Flag Desecration Amendment (often referred to as the Flag-Burning Amendment) is a proposed addition to the Constitution of the United States that would allow the U.S. Congress to prohibit by statute and provide punishment for the physical "desecration" of the flag of the United States. The concept of flag desecration continues to provoke a heated debate over protecting a national symbol, preserving free speech, and upholding the liberty said to be represented by that national symbol. While the proposal almost didn’t pass by two-thirds majority required in the House of Representatives several times, it has passed the Senate by the same super-majority and has often not come to a vote in the Senate despite its introduction several times.

While the proposed amendment is frequently referred to colloquially in terms of expression of political views through "flag burning", the language would permit the prohibition of all forms of flag desecration, which may take forms other than burning, such as using the flag for clothing or napkins.

The most recent legislative attempt to propose a flag desecration amendment to come to a vote in both the House and Senate in the same congressional session failed in the Senate by one vote on June 27, 2006.^[1][2][3] Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced a joint resolution to make it an unconstitutional ban on flag burning on June 14, 2019, and received support from the Trump administration, but the resolution was unsuccessful.^[4] Daines reintroduced the resolution on June 14, 2021.^[5]