Cliff Stearns: “listening to it in my office earlier, it was claimed that veterans oppose this amendment. And I was a little startled by…”

“listening to it in my office earlier, it was claimed that veterans oppose this amendment. And I was a little startled by that statement. And the veterans groups supposedly are called the Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans Defending the Bill of Rights. These veterans groups were cited as being against this amendment. Now, frankly, I have never heard of these groups. I am sure most of you have not heard of those groups. I am not saying they are not legitimate groups or they do not have well-meaning members. But I would contend that the vast majority of American veterans do indeed support the proposed amendment. And I cite the support of groups such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose membership combined is well over 5 million veterans. All this proposed amendment does is protect traditional American values and jurisprudence. Before and after the ratification of the first amendment, the States prohibited the physical desecration of the American flag. Then, over the next 200 years, everyone understood that any prohibition of physically desecrating the American flag was allowable under Federal, State and common law, and understood to be consistent with free speech. Civil libertarian jurists, such as Chief Justice Earl Warren, Justice Hugo Black, and Justice Abe Fortas wrote that the States and Federal Government have the power to protect the American flag. So it was the Supreme Court's decision in Texas v. Johnson in 1989, and U.S. v.…”