The Flag Protection Act of 2005 was a proposed United States federal law introduced in the United States Senate at the

109th United States Congress The 109th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, from January 3, 2005 to January 3, 2007, dur ...

on October 24, 2005, by Senator Bob Bennett ( R- Utah) and co-sponsored by Senator Hillary Clinton ( D- N.Y.). Later co-sponsors included

Barbara Boxer Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and lobbyist who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the U.S. ...

( D- Calif.), Mark Pryor ( D- Ark.) and

Thomas Carper Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician and former military officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Delaware, having held the seat si ...

( D- Del.). The law would have prohibited burning or otherwise destroying and damaging the US flag with the primary purpose of intimidation or inciting immediate violence or for the act of terrorism. It called for a punishment of no more than one year in prison and a fine of no more than $100,000; unless that flag was property of the United States Government, in which case the penalty would be a fine of not more than $250,000, not more than two years in prison, or both. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service summarized the act as follows: Although the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

ruled in ''

Texas v. Johnson ''Texas v. Johnson'', 491 U.S. 397 (1989), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that burning the American flag was protected speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution, as do ...

'' (1989) that flag-burning was protected by the First Amendment, the bill was intended, according to '' The New York Times'', to take the issue back to the Supreme Court, which was more conservative in 2005 than it was in 1989, in order to overturn that earlier decision. Since the law was not passed or even considered by the United States Congress, its constitutionality was never challenged in the Supreme Court.

References

External links

S.1911 - Flag Protection Act of 2005 on ''Congress.gov''
{{Hillary Rodham Clinton Flag controversies in the United States Proposed legislation of the 109th United States Congress Hillary Clinton