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In one tweet, Trump trashes two constitutional amendments
In one tweet, Trump trashes two constitutional amendments
By Editorial Board
November 29 at 1:50 PM
IT’S NOT easy to run afoul of two constitutional amendments in 140 characters. Whether he realizes it or, more likely, not, President-elect Donald Trump did so in this Twitter outburst Tuesday: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that the First Amendment protects burning the flag in protest. The high court ruled in 1967 that the 14th Amendment not only grants U.S. citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized” in this country; it also forbids the government from taking citizenship away from them.
In effect, then, Mr. Trump is proposing two constitutional changes — both of which provide further evidence of his tendency to address differences and disagreements within American society by suggesting new limits on their expression, or by excluding people from the American community altogether. We have seen this tendency at work in his call to “open up” libel laws — i.e., make it easier for public figures such as himself to sue when newspapers criticize them — and in his floating a religious test for entrants from abroad.
{No, you couldn’t strip flag-burners of citizenship, even if flag-burning could be made a crime}
By Editorial Board
November 29 at 1:50 PM
IT’S NOT easy to run afoul of two constitutional amendments in 140 characters. Whether he realizes it or, more likely, not, President-elect Donald Trump did so in this Twitter outburst Tuesday: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that the First Amendment protects burning the flag in protest. The high court ruled in 1967 that the 14th Amendment not only grants U.S. citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized” in this country; it also forbids the government from taking citizenship away from them.
In effect, then, Mr. Trump is proposing two constitutional changes — both of which provide further evidence of his tendency to address differences and disagreements within American society by suggesting new limits on their expression, or by excluding people from the American community altogether. We have seen this tendency at work in his call to “open up” libel laws — i.e., make it easier for public figures such as himself to sue when newspapers criticize them — and in his floating a religious test for entrants from abroad.
{No, you couldn’t strip flag-burners of citizenship, even if flag-burning could be made a crime}
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