President Donald Trump is making his move against those who burn the American flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than three decades after the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot prohibit burning or desecrating an American flag because doing so would violate the United States Constitution, Trump will order prosecutors to punish anyone who burns the American flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president signed an order on Monday directing the Department of Justice and other agencies to \u201cvigorously prosecute\u201d anyone who burns or desecrates the flag, as well as \u201cpursue litigation\u201d aimed at having the Supreme Court overturn the 1989 case Texas v. Johnson, which prohibited punishing anyone for burning an American flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that 5-4 ruling, Justice William Brennan noted that the First Amendment\u2019s speech protections apply not only to written or spoken words but also to symbolic actions such as burning the American flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don\u2019t get 10 years. You don\u2019t get one month. You get one year in jail. And it goes on your record, and you will see flag burning stopping immediately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n