Flag amendment passes Judiciary Committee vote

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a constitutional amendment on flag desecration Thursday, but not without a preview of what the floor debate to come later this month will be like.

Members passed the amendment 11 to 7, with eight members voting by proxy. The committee rejected a change to the amendment proposed by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., that would have altered the amendment's language.

The approved amendment does not ban flag burning or other forms of desecration outright. Instead, the proposed amendment would give Congress the power to pass a law that would ban the physical desecration of the flag. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is the amendment's top supporter, while Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, opposes the amendment.

Biden took issue with the actual words in the amendment and wanted to change "desecration" to "burning, mutilation or trampling" of the U.S. flag.

"You cannot desecrate something you cannot consecrate, by definition," Biden said.

Hatch said if the amendment passes, Congress will have the right to discuss this later. He told Biden that all the amendment does is give the power back to Congress that a 1989 Supreme Court ruling took away. In a 5-to-4 decision, the court ruled flag-protection laws were unconstitutional.

"You are getting way in advance of what we want this to be," Hatch said to Biden. "All this does is give power back to Congress. We have to first restore the right."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the Constitution is vague and already subject to interpretation, so the amendment should not get too specific.

Just before the committee voted, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said one constitutional amendment Congress should consider is one that bans new amendments in an election year.

The flag amendment's opponents have said it is a distraction from other real, more pressing issues that Congress should take up. The committee's top Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said that the theft of veteran's personal information, as well as their benefits and health care, should be discussed, rather than a flag-burning amendment.

Even so, Steve Robertson, director of the American Legion's National Legislative Commission, said veterans' groups like his that endorse the flag amendment "are capable of multi-tasking" and can pay attention to various issues at the same time.

The House has already passed the amendment. The change would require 67 votes to pass in the Senate before going to the states for ratification.

Three-fourths of the states would need to approve it before it would change the Constitution.

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