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‘Unconstitutional’: Trump Under Fire for Pushing Jail Time for Flag Burning

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In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning an American flag is protected free speech under the First Amendment, but President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that he said mandates that flag burners be prosecuted and ordered to spend one year behind bars with no possibility of parole.

Under the Constitution, presidents lack the authority to overrule the Supreme Court or mandate punishments.

The executive order, according to a Trump administration official, directs prosecution in cases that “wouldn’t fall afoul of the First Amendment.”

The order is titled, “Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag.”

“The order would not attempt to criminalize burning the American flag,” Axios reported, “but would direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to review cases where the flag has been set ablaze and determine what charges could be brought under existing laws.”

READ MORE: ‘Cozying Up to Putin’: VP Scorched for Russia-Promoting Rewrite of World Wars

It also orders the Attorney General to “prosecute people who ‘desecrate’ the American flag and to detain and remove immigrants who have been accused of such behavior,” according to The Washington Post. And it orders the Attorney General to find a case to challenge the 36-year-old 5-4 Supreme Court precedent.

Last year, a video appeared to show Trump signing an American flag.

The Independent called the executive order “one of biggest challenges to the First Amendment in decades.”

“This is very important,” President Trump declared in an Oval Office event surrounded by top advisors and Cabinet officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Flag burning, all over the country, they’re burning flags,” Trump claimed. “All over the world, they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess there was a five to four decision. They called it freedom of speech, but there’s another reason, which is perhaps much more important.”

“It’s called death, ’cause what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes — it’s crazy. If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy. You can do other things, you can burn this piece of paper, you can. And it’s. But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots,” Trump claimed. “At levels that we’ve never seen before, people go crazy. In a way, both ways, there are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry, angry about them doing it.”

The President told reporters, “the penalty is going to be, if you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing. You get one year in jail. If you burn a flag, you get. And what it does is incite to riot.”

READ MORE: ‘Totally Corrupt’: One Word From VP Triggers Political Firestorm

“You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record,” the President claimed. “And you will see flag burning stopping immediately, just like when I signed the Statue and Monument Act. Ten years in jail, have you hurt any of our beautiful monuments? Everybody left town. They were gone. Never had a problem after that. It’s pretty amazing. We stopped it.”

The President, without offering evidence, also claimed that some flag burners are simply “paid agitators, they’re paid by the radical left to do it. You talk to these people, they don’t even know half of them, don’t even know what they’re doing.”

Critics blasted the President.

“The Supreme Court ruled decades ago that burning an American flag is protected free speech,” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “Any prosecution that is the result of this executive order is by definition unconstitutional.”

The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch pointed to this 2015 quote form the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:

“If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag,” Scalia said. “But I am not king.”

“This flag burning executive order has it all,” wrote Nico Perrino, executive vice president of The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “Symbolic expression is ‘violence’ against the nation. Heckler’s veto justifications for censorship. Misinterpretation/narrowing of the Brandenburg incitement standard. A revitalization of the ‘fighting words’ doctrine.”

In a statement, FIRE wrote: “President Trump may believe he has the power to revise the First Amendment with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn’t. Flag burning as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment. That’s nothing new.”

Constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote: “Patently unconstitutional. 18 USC §700 has been void since Tex. v. Johnson (1989) and U.S. v. Eichman (1990) under the 1A. Second, there is no federal authority for an anti-flag-burning statute. The national government does not have a general police power.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Who’s Gonna Tell Him to Leave the White House?’: George Conway’s Dire Warning on Trump

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‘Show Up and Do Your Job’: Some Republicans Join Dems in Demanding Johnson Bring House Back

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October 9, 2025

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House Democrats working in Washington this week have been scolding their Republican counterparts for remaining in their home districts during the shutdown instead of doing the people’s business in the nation’s capital. Now, even some Republicans are beginning to question Speaker Mike Johnson’s strategy — and to side with Democrats — saying they, too, should be back in D.C.

“During a private conference call with House Republicans on Thursday, at least three GOP lawmakers — Reps. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, Jay Obernolte of California and Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota — raised concerns about the House remaining out of session next week, according to a source on the call,” MSNBC reported on Thursday.

“I think we’re gonna get to a point where it’s damaging to continue to keep the House out of session,” Obernolte told his fellow Republicans. “I think we’ve gotten to that point.”

READ MORE: ‘Unfolding Rapidly’: Trump Wants to ‘Stoke Violence’ to Invoke Insurrection Act Says Expert

Obernolte “said keeping lawmakers home would make it look like House Republicans are ‘prioritizing politics over government,’ according to the source.”

On Sunday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told “Meet the Press” that he had not spoken to GOP leadership for at least a week, Politico reported.

“Republicans, including Donald Trump, have gone radio silent,” Jeffries said.

On Wednesday, seven House and Senate Democrats from Georgia sent a letter to Speaker Johnson, urging him to bring Republicans back to work, WRDW reported.

“We are shocked to learn that you have decided the U.S. House of Representatives will not even come to work this week,” the letter states, according to the Atlanta media outlet. “House Republicans have now not come to work for 18 days.”

U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) wrote on Wednesday, “House Republicans are assaulting healthcare and making deep cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA. Are House Republicans also shutting down the government and avoiding coming to DC because they don’t want to vote on releasing the Epstein Files? That’s a legitimate question.”

READ MORE: ‘Twice the Size of a Glass of Water’: Trump Invents Wild Claim on Babies’ Vaccines

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern told reporters Republicans need to “show up.”

“You know,” the Massachusetts Democrat said, “Republicans love to advocate for more work requirements for poor people, people on SNAP. People on Medicaid. Well, I got an idea. Let’s have a work requirement for Republicans to show up to Congress and do your g– job.”

“I mean, millions of people are about to lose their healthcare,” McGovern continued. “This is a serious crisis we’re in, and we can avoid it. We can avoid people losing their health care, we can keep the government open. They need to show up.”

READ MORE: ‘I Know People. They Don’t Believe That’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Scorches Johnson

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‘Twice the Size of a Glass of Water’: Trump Invents Wild Claim on Babies’ Vaccines

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11 hours ago

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October 9, 2025

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President Donald Trump is continuing to make incorrect claims about vaccines, autism, and children.

In Thursday’s televised Cabinet meeting, the President wrongly expressed the rate of autism in boys, nearly doubling it. The rate is about one in 20 boys, but President Trump claimed it is one in 12. He also claimed the rate for girls was far higher than actual. The overall rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one in 31 children.

The President also wrongly expressed the actual size of the vaccines babies get, as he suggested a disproven vaccines-autism link.

“So, obviously, there’s something, there’s something that’s artificially, I think, induced, something, whether it’s the vaccines in terms of these massive vaccines that are twice the size of a jar like that, of a glass of water like that,” he claimed, “I mean, into a baby’s body, and I’ve suggested get them in doses, get them in, you know, maybe 20%, 30%, but smaller, not such a big —”

He also said that, under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., there were “certain recommendations” that the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine (MMR) be split apart and taken separately, as three vaccine shots.

READ MORE: ‘Unfolding Rapidly’: Trump Wants to ‘Stoke Violence’ to Invoke Insurrection Act Says Expert

 

Image via Reuters

 

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‘Unfolding Rapidly’: Trump Wants to ‘Stoke Violence’ to Invoke Insurrection Act Says Expert

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13 hours ago

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October 9, 2025

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Robert Reich, a former Secretary of Labor and a professor of public policy, is sounding the alarm — warning that President Donald Trump plans to invoke the Insurrection Act, and detailing the steps he may take to make it happen.

Reich, the author of twenty books, said on Thursday:  “Trump wants to invoke the Insurrection Act, to punish anyone who opposes him.”

In his video, he played a clip of the President saying recently, “If you take a look at what’s been going on in Portland, it’s been going on for a long time and that’s insurrection. I mean, that’s pure insurrection.”

Military, legal, and political experts this week warned after Trump vowed to invoke the Insurrection Act if he deems it necessary — a move some see as the culmination of an authoritarian trajectory he has been telegraphing since taking office. No president has used the law in more than three decades, and then only in limited, localized crises.

READ MORE: ‘I Know People. They Don’t Believe That’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Scorches Johnson

Reich went on to say, “I know all of this is frightening, and I don’t want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of this imminent danger. It’s unfolding very, very rapidly.”

Explaining what he described as Trump’s four-point plan, Reich said step one “is to deploy ICE into so-called blue cities, run by Democrats. These masked and armed ICE agents are wreaking havoc on American cities and violating due process. They’re arresting people outside immigration courtrooms. They’re raiding homes in the middle of the night, and detaining children and adults, including American citizens. They admit to using racial profiling.”

Step two, he said, is “exaggerate the scale and severity of the protests.”

Step three: “Deploy National Guard troops.”

“Trump is deploying hundreds of National Guard troops from red states, like Texas, into blue states like Oregon, and Illinois, against the wishes of Democratic governors,” Reich said.  “This is continuing to enrage an already outraged public — which is the whole point.”

“Trump wants to stoke actual violence, which would make it easier for him to unleash the final step in his plan, which is step four, invoke the Insurrection Act.”

READ MORE: ‘I’m Begging You — My Kids Could Die’: GOP C-SPAN Caller Slams Johnson Over Shutdown

“The Insurrection Act empowers a president to federalize the National Guard and use the U.S. military to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or armed rebellion against the government,” Reich explained. “Everything done by Trump has been a preamble to invoking this act, and being able to unleash troops against his perceived political enemies who oppose his regime in advance of the 2026 midterms. It would be the ultimate step in Trump’s authoritarian power grab.”

He said that “Trump and his enablers want violent confrontations in order to justify their moves. So, please, remain peaceful if you protest, or if you encounter ICE agents, or National Guard troops where you live. Do not give Trump what he wants.”

On Wednesday on Substack, Professor Reich wrote: “The direction we’re going is either martial law or civil war.”

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, one of the most outspoken members of the Democratic Party, took to the Senate floor to explain what he said is President Trump “enacting a well thought out plan so he and his allies can rule forever.”

“We aren’t on the verge of an authoritarian takeover,” the Connecticut Democrat declared. “We are in the middle of it.”

READ MORE: ‘Full-Blown Authoritarianism’: Governor Fires Back After Trump Says He Belongs ‘in Jail’

 

Image via Reuters

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