On August 25, Trump signed an executive order ordering the Justice Department to prosecute individuals that have burned an American flag.
Talking out of his mouth when signing the order in the Oval Office, Trump threatened that anyone caught burning a flag will receive one year in jail. However, the executive order he had just signed does not impose this penalty. The order even acknowledged that the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that burning the flag was a form of political expression succored by the First Amendment. While the Supreme Court added that burning a flag to incite riots was illegal, Trump’s order does little, if anything, to reinforce that legal fact; it is redundant.
Individuals may also be prosecuted for the act of setting a fire itself, but they may not be prosecuted for political expression under any circumstance, even if the President demands it.
This instance demonstrates the authoritarian metamorphosis of the Republican Party. Justice Antonin Scalia, known for his hard-right stances, stated that, despite his personal views, he helped rule alongside his Supreme Court majority to protect the legal rights of individuals who burned the flag. Today, Trump and the GOP take little issue with violating First Amendment rights.
