Early this morning, President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter and said that a long-standing law protecting free speech and free expression should be ignored. He tweeted, “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”
Although it’s extremely controversial, the burning of the American flag is Constitutionally protected free expression. Back in 1989, the Supreme Court said that any law that punishes the act is a violation of the Constitution.
Trump didn’t give any indication of what prompted the tweet, but, as Mediaite notes, there have been recent reports of some college students burning the flag to protest Trumps election.
