Editing Flag Desecration Amendment (section)

==Polls==
A USA Today/Gallup Poll in June 2006 has shown 56% supporting a constitutional amendment, down from 63% favoring a flag burning amendment in Gallup's 1999 poll.<ref>Joseph Carroll, [http://news.gallup.com/poll/23524/public-support-constitutional-amendment-flag-burning.aspx Public Support for Constitutional Amendment on Flag Burning], Gallup News</ref><ref>"[http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0629/p02s02-uspo.html Why the flag amendment hasn't cleared Senate hurdle]", csmonitor.com.</ref><ref>[http://washingtonobserver.org/en/document.cfm?documentid=58&charid=3 Shall We Burn the National Flag? Chat on the Eve of National Day] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610213518/http://washingtonobserver.org/en/document.cfm?documentid=58&charid=3 |date=2015-06-10 }}, ''Washington Observer''</ref> Another poll conducted by [[CNN]] in June 2006 also found that 56% of Americans supported a flag desecration amendment.<ref name=cnn/> In contrast, a summer 2005 poll by the [[First Amendment Center]] found that 63% of Americans opposed amending the constitution to outlaw flag burning, up from 53% in 2004.<ref>[http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=15418 firstamendmentcenter.org: news] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327072536/http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=15418 |date=2006-03-27}}.</ref>

A June 2020 YouGov poll found that 49% think it should be illegal to burn or intentionally destroy the flag, while 34% said it should be legal.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/06/24/flag-burning-legal-illegal-poll-data | title=Half of Americans say it should be illegal to burn the US flag &#124; YouGov }}</ref>

===Congressional votes===
During each term of Congress from 1995 to 2005, the proposed amendment was passed by the House of Representatives, but not the Senate, falling four votes short on two occasions in the upper house. As approved by the House of Representatives each time, the joint resolutions called for ratification by state legislatures, of which a minimum of 38 state legislative approvals would be required (three-fourths of the 50 states), within a period of seven years following the proposal by both houses of Congress. As can be seen by the votes in the House of Representatives, support for the amendment appears to be slipping with only 286 'yea' votes during the [[109th United States Congress|109th Congress]] in 2005, in contrast to the 312 'yea' votes almost a decade earlier during the 104th.

The chronology of the Congress' action upon the flag-desecration amendment runs over a period of more than ten years:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Congress !! Resolution(s) !! Vote date !! Yes !! No !! Ref
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right; height:60px;"| [[104th United States Congress|104th Congress]]<ref>"Bill Summary & Status for the 104th Congress", Library of Congress: [https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/house-joint-resolution/79 H.J. Res. 79], [https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/31 S.J. Res. 31].</ref>
| style="text-align:right;"| House Joint Resolution 79
| style="text-align:right;"| June 28, 1995
| style="text-align:right;"| 312
| style="text-align:right;"| 120
| <ref>{{cite web|url=https://clerk.house.gov/evs/1995/roll431.xml|title=Final vote results for roll call 431|website=clerk.house.gov|access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:right;"| Senate Joint Resolution 31
| style="text-align:right;"| December 12, 1995
| style="text-align:right;"| 63
| style="text-align:right;"| 36
| <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=1&vote=00600|title=U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 104th Congress - 1st Session}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:right; height:60px;"| [[105th United States Congress|105th Congress]]<ref>"Bill Summary & Status for the 105th Congress", Library of Congress: [https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-joint-resolution/54 H.J. Res. 54].</ref>
| style="text-align:right;"| House Joint Resolution 54
| style="text-align:right;"| June 12, 1997
| style="text-align:right;"| 310
| style="text-align:right;"| 114
| <ref>{{cite web|url=https://clerk.house.gov/evs/1997/roll202.xml|title=Final vote results for roll call 202|website=clerk.house.gov|access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right; height:60px;"| [[106th United States Congress|106th Congress]]<ref>"Bill Summary & Status for the 106th Congress", Library of Congress: [https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-joint-resolution/33 H.J. Res. 33], [https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/14 S.J. Res. 14].</ref>
| style="text-align:right;"| House Joint Resolution 33
| style="text-align:right;"| June 24, 1999
| style="text-align:right;"| 305
| style="text-align:right;"| 124
| <ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1999/roll252.xml |title=Final vote results for roll call 252|website=clerk.house.gov|access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:right;"| Senate Joint Resolution 14
| style="text-align:right;"| March 29, 2000
| style="text-align:right;"| 63
| style="text-align:right;"| 37
| <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=2&vote=00048|title=U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 106th Congress - 2nd Session}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:right; height:60px;"| [[107th United States Congress|107th Congress]]<ref>"Bill Summary & Status for the 107th Congress", Library of Congress: [https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-joint-resolution/36 H.J. Res. 36].</ref>
| style="text-align:right;"| House Joint Resolution 36
| style="text-align:right;"| July 17, 2001
| style="text-align:right;"| 298
| style="text-align:right;"| 125
| <ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2001/roll232.xml|title=Final vote results for roll call 232|website=clerk.house.gov|access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:right; height:60px;"| [[108th United States Congress|108th Congress]]<ref>"Bill Summary & Status for the 108th Congress", Library of Congress: [https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/house-joint-resolution/4 H.J. Res. 4].</ref>
| style="text-align:right;"| House Joint Resolution 4
| style="text-align:right;"| June 3, 2003
| style="text-align:right;"| 300
| style="text-align:right;"| 125
| <ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll234.xml|title=Final vote results for roll call 234|website=clerk.house.gov|access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right; height:60px;"| [[109th United States Congress|109th Congress]]<ref name="109th Congress">"Bill Summary & Status for the 109th Congress", Library of Congress: [https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-joint-resolution/10 H.J. Res. 10], [https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/12 S.J. Res. 12].</ref>
| style="text-align:right;"| House Joint Resolution 10
| style="text-align:right;"| June 22, 2005
| style="text-align:right;"| 286
| style="text-align:right;"| 130
| <ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll296.xml|title=Final vote results for roll call 296|website=clerk.house.gov|access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:right;"| Senate Joint Resolution 12
| style="text-align:right;"| June 27, 2006
| style="text-align:right;"| 66
| style="text-align:right;"| 34
| <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00189|title=U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 2nd Session}}</ref>
|}

To be added to the Constitution, it must be approved by a two-thirds vote of those present and voting in both houses of Congress, as well as be ratified by at least three-fourths of either (1) the 50 [[State legislature (United States)|state legislature]]s or (2) ratifying conventions in each of the 50 states (Congress has the power to choose the mode of ratification). Senators had until the end of 2006 to take action on H.J. Res. 10 during the remainder of the 109th Congress.<ref name="109th Congress" /> On March 7, 2006, [[Senate Majority Leader]] [[Bill Frist]] announced that he would bring the bill for consideration in June 2006.<ref name="AP">"House Approves Move to Outlaw Flag Burning", June 22, 2005, [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/22/national/w154243D82.DTL Associated Press via ''San Francisco Chronicle''].</ref> On Monday, June 26, 2006, the Senate began debate on the proposed amendment. The following day, the amendment, sponsored by Senator [[Orrin Hatch]], fell one vote short in the Senate, with 66 in support and 34 opposed. The Republican nay votes were  [[Robert Foster Bennett|Bob Bennett]] (UT), [[Lincoln Chafee]] (RI), and [[Mitch McConnell]] (KY). The vote on Senator [[Dick Durbin|Richard Durbin]]'s alternative amendment, which would have given Congress the power to ban flag desecration intended to intimidate or breach peace on federal land, was 36–64.<ref name=nytonevote/> Opponents pointed to the proximity of the vote to the November 7, 2006 Congressional Election, and claimed that the vote (and a recent vote on the [[Federal Marriage Amendment]]) was election year grandstanding.