Washington – A constitutional amendment to outlaw flag burning cleared the House on Wednesday but faced an uphill battle in the Senate. An informal survey by The Associated Press suggested the measure doesn’t have enough Senate votes to pass.
The 286-130 outcome was never in doubt in the House, which had passed the measure or one like it five times in recent years.
Colorado’s House delegation almost split along party lines, with Democrats Diana DeGette and Mark Udall voting “no” and Republicans Bob Beauprez, Joel Hefley, Marilyn Musgrave and Tom Tancredo voting “yes.”
Democrat John Salazar voted with the Republicans.
The amendment’s supporters expressed optimism that a Republican gain of four seats in November’s election could produce the two-thirds approval needed in the Senate as well after four failed attempts since 1989.
But an AP survey Wednesday found 35 senators on record as opposing the amendment, one more than the number needed to defeat it if all 100 senators vote, barring a change in position.
Late Wednesday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said she would vote against the measure. “I don’t believe a constitutional amendment is the answer,” Rodham Clinton, a possible presidential candidate in 2008, said in a statement.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., remained undecided, a spokesman said.
The House debate fell along familiar lines over whether the amendment strengthened the Constitution or ran afoul of its free-speech protections.
Proponents said there was more public support than ever because of emotions following the 2001 terrorist attacks. They said detractors are out of touch with public sentiment.
“Ask the men and women who stood on top of the Trade Center,” said Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif. “Ask them and they will tell you: Pass this amendment.”
Critics accused the amendment’s supporters of exploiting the attacks to trample the right to free speech.
“If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., whose district includes the site of the former World Trade Center.
The last time the Senate voted on the amendment, the tally was 63 in favor and 37 against, four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed.
The proposed one-line amendment to the Constitution reads, “The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.”
For the language to be added to the Constitution, it must be approved by two-thirds of those present in each chamber, then ratified within seven years by at least 38 state legislatures.
The amendment is designed to overturn a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in 1989 that flag burning is a protected free-speech right.
That ruling threw out a 1968 federal statute as well as flag- protection laws in 48 states. The statute was a response to Vietnam War protesters’ setting fire to U.S. flags at demonstrations.
The Senate could consider the measure as soon as next month.
