Melvin Watt: “I yield myself 1 minute just for the purpose of responding to this. I do not agree at all with my chair, as much as I…”

“I yield myself 1 minute just for the purpose of responding to this. I do not agree at all with my chair, as much as I respect him, that this codifies anything. What it does is that it codifies and reaffirms and acknowledges the state of affairs that exists right now, that in the final analysis the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution and laws of our country. After we pass my amendment or the underlying amendment, the Supreme Court is still going to be the ultimate arbiter of that, and so my amendment neither does that or does not do it. His amendment does not do it. If the Supreme Court changes its mind, the composition of the Supreme Court changes, and they decide that burning a flag is prohibited, is not protected under the first amendment, then that is going to be the last word on it. We do not have any way to go on that. So I do not think I can agree with him that I am doing anything different than preserving the state of affairs. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), my good friend.”