Washington, DC – Below is the official statement of U.S. Senator Mark Dayton regarding the Anti-Flag Desecration Resolution (S.J.Res.12).

“Ever since I began my campaign for the United States Senate over six years ago, I have consistently promised to support the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit the desecration of the American Flag. Indeed, I am a cosponsor of that Constitutional Amendment, which will soon be voted upon by the Senate.

“I value and respect the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, and I have personally experienced its importance. When I opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s and ‘70s, the First Amendment permitted my lawful dissent, although it did not prevent President Richard Nixon’s Justice Department from tear-gassing our demonstrations or from unlawfully spying upon me. A generation and another war later, the First Amendment again protected my right to speak out against President Bush’s policies without intimidation or incarceration (and, this time, without being tear-gassed). I would never infringe upon those precious freedoms of expression and dissent.

“The question before us today is not whether we honor the First Amendment, which we do, but rather whether an act as vile as burning the American Flag should be considered "free speech"? Or is it an act of such wanton violence and outrageous disrespect, that it should be "out of bounds"? I come to the second conclusion.

“Our nation’s "Pledge of Allegiance" was first published almost 114 years ago and was established by Congress in 1923. It states, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

“I note, parenthetically, that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1943 that under the First Amendment no one can be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Nevertheless, it is one of our most revered statements of citizenship. It does not pledge allegiance to a Democratic or a Republican Administration. It does not pledge allegiance to any ideology, policy, or platform.

“It pledges allegiance to the flag of the United States of America – and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In other words, allegiance to something above any one of us. To something that unites us as one people – indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

“Those are our nation’s founding principles. They are our eternal ideals. We can disagree; we can dissent; we can lawfully protest; we can say almost anything we want and do most of what we want, because those are our rights. They are precious, inviolable rights.

“But we also have responsibilities. This great country cannot succeed, if we concern ourselves with nothing more than our rights as individuals. We must equally consider our responsibilities as citizens.

“This Constitutional Amendment says that one of those responsibilities of citizenship is to not burn or otherwise desecrate our American Flag. I am astounded that the U.S. Supreme Court could construe that as free speech, but it has. This amendment would simply permit Congress to declare otherwise and to place that senseless act of desecration outside the boundary of freedom of speech, just as the Supreme Court recently ruled burning a cross outside that boundary of protected free speech.

“I am willing to take this carefully considered action, because of what I know the American Flag means to millions of American citizens. Many of them are relatives or friends of heroic Americans who have given their lives to defend our country. In my view, those great American heroes have consecrated our flag with their precious blood. Honoring our flag honors their extraordinary sacrifices, as it honors the principles and ideals for which they died.

“That is why I will vote for this Constitutional Amendment.”

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