Flag fight again pits Hatch and Bennett

WASHINGTON — With legions of American Legionnaires, Veterans of Foreign Wars and flags in the room, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch renewed hearings this past week to push his constitutional amendment to protect the flag.

But one of his biggest opponents wasn't there to hear pleas for it: Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who was conducting his own economic hearing nearby.

While the two Utah Republicans are the closest of friends and usually match votes, they are passionate leaders of opposing forces on the 15-year-old fight over whether a constitutional amendment is needed to prevent flag desecration.

"A constitutional amendment is the only legal means to protect the flag," Hatch said, adding that it deserves special protection as a symbol of U.S. unity and of the sacrifice of soldiers who died for it — including his brother killed in World War II.

Bennett contends that a carefully crafted, simple statute is enough to protect the flag, even though the Supreme Court struck down similar laws previously. He also worries an amendment could hurt freedom of speech and protest.

Bennett told the Senate in 2000 that if Hatch's amendment ever passes, "The words will lie there. I don't think they will make much difference (to stop flag burners), but they will be there as a symbol of our willingness to overturn more than 200 years of tradition with respect to individual rights as outlined in the First Amendment."

Mary Jane Collipriest, Bennett's press secretary, said, "Nothing has changed. Sen. Bennett still opposes the flag amendment."

Bennett was one of just four Republicans who opposed the amendment the last time the full Senate voted on it in 2000, helping to barely defeat it. Hatch has twice come within three votes of achieving the two-thirds majority needed. Meanwhile, the House has actually passed it five times — including during the present Congress.

Hatch took advantage of Washington meetings called by the American Legion and VFW to hold another hearing on the amendment he has pushed every year since 1989 when the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is a protected form of free speech. The veterans packed the hearing to show support, and to testify for it.

Retired Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady, a Medal of Honor winner, testified, "We believe our battle for our flag is a battle for our Constitution. Our concern is not those who desecrate the flag, our concern is those who desecrate our Constitution by calling flag burning 'speech.' "