Part I: Roger Pilon, Part II: Carole Shields

The following two-part viewpoint is taken from the congressional testimonies of Roger Pilon and Carole Shields before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution concerning a proposed constitutional amendment to ban flag burning that was passed in the House on June 12, 1997. In Part I, Pilon argues that flag desecration is political speech, and as such, is protected under the First Amendment. In Part II, Shields agrees, maintaining that the best way to honor the freedom that the flag symbolizes is by permitting offensive political dissent. Pilon is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy research organization, and director of the institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. Shields is the president of People For the American Way...