mr. speaker , listening to it in my office earlier , it was claimed that veterans oppose this amendment . 
and i was a little startled by that statement . 
and the veterans groups supposedly are called the veterans for common sense , and veterans defending the bill of rights . 
these veterans groups were cited as being against this amendment . 
now , frankly , i have never heard of these groups . 
i am sure most of you have not heard of those groups . 
i am not saying they are not legitimate groups or they do not have well-meaning members . 
but i would contend that the vast majority of american veterans do indeed support the proposed amendment . 
and i cite the support of groups such as the american legion and veterans of foreign wars , whose membership combined is well over 5 million veterans . 
all this proposed amendment does is protect traditional american values and jurisprudence . 
before and after the ratification of the first amendment , the states prohibited the physical desecration of the american flag . 
then , over the next 200 years , everyone understood that any prohibition of physically desecrating the american flag was allowable under federal , state and common law , and understood to be consistent with free speech . 
civil libertarian jurists , such as chief justice earl warren , justice hugo black , and justice abe fortas wrote that the states and federal government have the power to protect the american flag . 
so it was the supreme court 's decision in texas v. johnson in 1989 , and u.s. v. eichman in 1990 , that overturned two centuries of traditional and commonly accepted legal practice . 
thanks to these , what i believe are dubious decisions , we are forced to act with this constitutional amendment . 
this amendment does not really restrict freedom of expression , because no idea or viewpoints would be suppressed . 
anyone can still freely say that they hate america and everything for which it stands , they just can not burn a flag to prove their point . 
there are so many exceptions to free speech : child pornography , cross burning , libel , fighting words . 
we are merely looking at a very extremely narrow exception to prevent the desecration of the symbol that represents so many wonderful things to so many people at home and around the world . 
mr. speaker , i would finally point out to my colleagues that it is against federal law to burn u.s. currency or willfully destroy u.s. mailboxes ; yet we can not protect the american flag ? 
mr. speaker , i believe that we have a constitutional justification for this amendment . 
we also have the support of all 50 states and 80 percent of the american people . 
i urge my colleagues to support this amendment . 
