Jesse Jackson Quotes

A flag burning Constitutional amendment would rip the fabric of the Constitution at its very center.

We will take a meaningless vote so that some campaign operatives can try to bludgeon senators who are willing to stand up for the Bill of Rights and vote against this amendment.

There is no indication - either in the text of the Constitution or in our cases interpreting it - that a separate judicial category exists for the American flag alone. ... We decline ... therefore to create for the flag an exception to the … principles protected by the First Amendment.

Certainly one cannot ban cross burning in the sanctity of his bedroom.

Burn the flag; that's a freedom. Then I have the freedom to take it away from them and tell them how dumb they are.

We have a First Amendment right to burn the flag as symbolic speech. The Constitution protects that right. To spend time and effort on this is ridiculous.

I just think political correctness is a limitation on our First Amendment freedoms.

I am for the First Amendment from the first word to the last. I believe it means what it says.

If you buy the flag it's yours to burn.

I would bet there is no place in the United States where the First Amendment would survive intact.

I think free speech is probably the coolest thing we have in this country, and again, you can label it hate speech and dismiss it, and then you're allowed to censor it.

The First Amendment defends all forms of speech including hate speech, which is why groups like Ku Klux Klan are allowed to utter their poisonous remarks.

Worrying that banning flag desecration would inhibit free speech reveals a misunderstanding of the flag's fundamental nature.

Who personally has ever witnessed a flag burning?

The Supreme Court decision [Texas v. Johnson, 1989] does not in any way indicate the government is backing off from forcing the flag on people. They just don't want to look too dictatorial in the way they do it.

The Constitution does not allow the unnecessary trammeling of free expression, even for the noblest of purposes.

Offensive or not, those who burn the flag to express their views are exercising a right that our founding generation fought a revolution to secure.

We are the only country that allows and protects hate speech.

Under the privilege of the 1st Amendment many, many ridiculous things are said.

Burning the American flag should be punishable by loss of citizenship.

We have the First Amendment to rely on whenever an elected official tries to impinge on our rights to speak.

Nowhere does our Constitution say we cannot say something about another's religion. Nowhere does our Constitution say we cannot say anything that offends someone.

The FBI holds sacred the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their First Amendment freedoms.

Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views, even views that we profoundly disagree with. We do not do so because we support hateful speech, but because our founders understood that without such protections, the capacity of each individual to express their own views and practice their own faith may be threatened. We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can quickly become a tool to silence critics and oppress minorities.

I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.