Jim Sensenbrenner: “Mr. Speaker, this proposed constitutional amendment does not restrict anybody from saying whatever they want to say…”

“Mr. Speaker, this proposed constitutional amendment does not restrict anybody from saying whatever they want to say about the flag, about the government, about their opinions of any public official, of any candidate for office, of the policies that have been made by the Federal Government, the State government or the local government. What it does do is to prohibit offensive acts, such as burning the flag or, in my own State, using the Johnson and Eichman decisions, the State Supreme Court said that defecating on the flag was an act that was a protected political expression under the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The only way to put sense back into the law is to pass H.J. Res. 4.”