Max Cleland: “I am proud to say that the resolution regarding the flag protection amendment Senator Hatch and I are introducing today…”

“I am proud to say that the resolution regarding the flag protection amendment Senator Hatch and I are introducing today has 57 original co-sponsors, and I am hopeful that we will be able to bring this important matter to a final vote in the Senate this year. As I have stated many times before, I am a strong supporter of a Constitutional amendment to prohibit the physical desecration of the United States flag. The amendment we are proposing is simple. It simply vests Congress with the authority to protect the flag through statute. We need not fear that the states will create a hodge-podge of flag protection statutes. Instead, Congress can create one uniform statute for the entire nation. I understand the concerns that others have about the impact on the First Amendment that this bill might have, and as a veteran who risked his life in Vietnam to protect the principles of freedoms that Americans hold sacred, I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment. However, I believe that an amendment to protect the flag is an acceptable limitation in order to protect the most sacred of American symbols.”