Q1 - Like other combat veterans and fellow Americans, the desecration of the American flag, a symbol of our Nation, thoroughly offends and disgusts me. The question of respect, in my eyes, has nothing to do with the analysis of possibly amending the First Amendment in order to make desecrating the flag illegal. Rather, respecting the Constitution and the freedoms it protects would be more important than the flag. Furthermore, I agree with General Colin Powell’s letter to Senator Patrick Leahy in 1999 regarding the flag, “They may be destroying a piece of cloth, but they do no damage to our system of freedom which tolerates such desecration… The First Amendment exists to insure that freedom of speech and expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also that which we find outrageous.”
Allowing a possible amendment to our Constitution, which would ultimately have to take place to ensure sweeping enforcement of flag desecration, we would be setting a perilous precedent of amending the First Amendment every time some form of speech is considered offensive or unpatriotic, thus undermining the very freedoms we all serve to …show more content…
Having been a topic of discussion and concern for so long, one may infer that keeping a sovereign entity from being able to continually prosecute someone until they get the results they want, is and was of great concern. I concede that there may be carriages of injustice for the victims, but to go the other way of allowing someone to be prosecuted until the “right” judge or jury is seated is of even bigger concern to me, for which I agree with the clause. However, if evidence becomes available to charge the defendant with a different crime for which he/she was not acquitted, every effort should be
Allowing a possible amendment to our Constitution, which would ultimately have to take place to ensure sweeping enforcement of flag desecration, we would be setting a perilous precedent of amending the First Amendment every time some form of speech is considered offensive or unpatriotic, thus undermining the very freedoms we all serve to …show more content…
Having been a topic of discussion and concern for so long, one may infer that keeping a sovereign entity from being able to continually prosecute someone until they get the results they want, is and was of great concern. I concede that there may be carriages of injustice for the victims, but to go the other way of allowing someone to be prosecuted until the “right” judge or jury is seated is of even bigger concern to me, for which I agree with the clause. However, if evidence becomes available to charge the defendant with a different crime for which he/she was not acquitted, every effort should be