President Donald Trump understands well that it is the job of the press to cover what goes on and so he floods the news cycle with more than can be accommodated. Such is the case with Monday’s unconstitutional completely bogus executive order banning flag-burning.
“My Administration will act to restore respect and sanctity to the American Flag and prosecute those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country, to the fullest extent permissible under any available authority,” the White House declared in a statement.
Of course, there’s that pesky thing called the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech in America. And a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, 1989’s Texas v. Johnson, which found, “The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable, even where our flag is involved.”
That decision was joined by the not-at-all-woke Justice Antonin Scalia, who later remarked, “If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag. But I am not king.”
Trump, or those around him, must realize his order is nonsense. While Trump may see himself as a king, he’s not, and the law is clear on this. Presidential orders are not magic wands and presidential decrees don’t negate constitutional rights.
Still, we can see Trump is eager to distract from many dubious aspects of his administration.
As noted by Walter Olson of the Cato Institute, “In short, it’s a low-energy measure that pleases his base and shifts a bit of news attention onto an issue where he feels public opinion is with him. And look, it worked: I just spent twenty minutes writing on this instead of on what the Founders and Framers would have thought of his plans to use military and paramilitary forces to occupy American cities.”
In addition to Trump’s reckless threat to deploy the military in American cities, the administration no doubt seeks any distraction from the ongoing fallout of his friendship with sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein or the plain fact that his administration is adopting the state capitalist economic policies of the Chinese Communist Party.
While his symbolic attack on the First Amendment won’t actually amount to anything, his administration’s various other acts will and mostly for the worse.
Long gone are the days when the Republican Party at least pretended to be a party committed to the U.S. Constitution. Now, we’re not even sure the Republican president has even read the Constitution.
