Richard Parker

In 1989 and 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that two laws prohibiting flag burning were unconstitutional because they violated the right to free speech. Every year since then, Congress has unsuccessfully attempted to pass a constitutional amendment banning flag desecration. In the following viewpoint, Richard Parker supports the amendment. The flag is a symbol of the country’s national sovereignty, he asserts; desecrating it destroys that image. In addition, he maintains that banning flag burning would not violate any rules against regulating the content of speech because no such rules exist. Parker is a law professor at Harvard University and the author of Here, the People Rule: A Constitutional Manifesto.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What, according to Parker, do flag amendment opponents say the flag symbolizes?
2. Why...