FLAG-BURNING PLAN IGNITING NEW DEBATE : CAPITOL HILL EYES PROPOSED AMENDMENT.

Byline: Bob Dart Cox News Service

Seldom have so few flames ignited so much passion.

Throughout all of American history, there are fewer than 200 documented instances in which a flag was burned in protest - averaging not even one a year, said Robert Goldstein, a political science professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., who has written three books on the topic.

But now, flag-burning is again a hot topic on Capitol Hill.

A proposed constitutional amendment introduced in the House this month would let Congress outlaw flag-burning. Two years ago, a similar amendment passed the House but narrowly failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Surveys show that 80 percent of the populace supports such an amendment, said Dan Wheeler, president of the Citizens Flag Alliance. If Congress passes the amendment, 49 of the 50 state legislatures have pledged to ratify it, he said.

``I believe we must listen to the people and join forces to pass this amendment to protect the Stars and Stripes once and for all,'' said Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., one of 294 House members on record as supporting the measure.

Just as passionate in their opposition, civil libertarians believe the amendment is an affront to the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.

A ``bedrock principle'' of personal freedom in the United States is that the government cannot prohibit expression of an idea just because the majority objects to that expression, warned Clay Calvert, associate director of the Center for the First Amendment at the University of Pennsylvania.

``That's the much greater threat,'' said Julie Lucas, director of the First Amendment Congress at the University of Denver. ``You can't let this go by. You can't just ignore it. It fundamentally alters what the First Amendment says.''

While flag-burnings are hardly at bonfire proportions, a busy Congress is responding to support by a majority of Americans for an amendment that civil libertarians say would erode their basic freedoms.

The intense interest is illustrated by the fact that Goldstein has found material enough on flag-burning to fill three books, including ``Saving Old Glory: the History of the American Flag Desecration Controversy.''

The flag ``was not even very important in American politics until the Civil War,'' said Goldstein. Before then, it was flown at federal forts but not at public buildings such as schools. The American eagle was a more prevalent national symbol.

But the Stars and Stripes gained symbolic significance when the nation split. In the North, the flag represented union. In the South it was a symbol of tyranny. Still, Goldstein found only one case where the American flag was burned during the war. A Southern sympathizer was executed by Union troops, however, for tearing down the American flag flying over a federal mint in New Orleans and dragging it through the mud.

After Robert E. Lee's surrender, the newfound popularity of the Stars and Stripes inspired widespread use in advertising. Slogans were written on the stripes. One campaign imposed the words ``Magnolia Ham - An American Institution'' on the flag. Such commercial use prompted Union veterans to launch the first movement against flag desecration in the 1890s.

Goldstein said the crusade to protect the flag was boosted when groups then viewed as un-American, including political radicals and early labor organizers, also started putting their slogans on the stripes. Over a period of several decades, every state passed laws outlawing desecration of the flag.

Goldstein's research didn't turn up another case of flag-burning until 1916, when a radical clergyman was prosecuted for setting the blaze.

It wasn't until the Vietnam War that flag-burning seared the national consciousness. The most publicized incident came at a 1967 anti-war demonstration in Central Park in New York City.

Like bell-bottom jeans and long hair, the flag as a protest prop became a symbol of the 1960s, reflecting the larger divisions in the nation. Between 1965 and 1975, there were at least 1,000 flag desecration prosecutions, Goldstein said. Only 25 or so involved burning. Many of the cases involved protesters wearing flags on their clothing in what was deemed a disrespectful manner.

The current controversy was kindled in Dallas in 1984 when Gregory Lee Johnson burned a flag during a protest by the Maoist Communist Youth Brigade outside the Republican National Convention. Johnson was convicted of violating the Texas law against flag desecration, but in 1989 the Supreme Court struck down the statute, ruling 5-4 that burning a flag in public protest is a constitutionally protected form of free speech.

The decision nullified all the existing laws against flag desecration. Later in 1989, Congress passed a federal statute against physical desecration of the flag. The new law sparked a short-lived rash of flag-burnings. In 1990, the Supreme Court struck down the federal statute.

In 1995, the amendment passed the House 312-120, more than the needed two-thirds majority. But the Senate vote was 63-36, four votes shy of passage.

Supporters say they will not lose this year on a constitutional amendment that says simply: ``Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.''

The issue is not how often or how rarely the flag is abused, said Wheeler, president of the Citizens Flag Alliance, a coalition of 115 groups led by the American Legion and other veterans organizations.

``This is about values,'' he said. ``We believe the Constitution and laws of the nation should reflect the values of American people.''

TIMELINE

1984: Gregory Lee Johnson is arrested for flag desecration at a protest outside the Republican National Convention in Dallas.

June 21, 1989: The Supreme Court rules in Texas vs. Johnson, overturning state law under which Johnson was convicted. In their 5-4 decision, the justices declare that burning the American flag is free speech protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. The ruling invalidates all other laws against flag desecration.

Oct. 12, 1989: House and Senate pass a federal bill to protect the flag.

Oct. 13, 1989: President Bush signs the bill into law.

June 11, 1990: The Supreme Court rules that the federal flag protection law is unconstitutional.

Aug. 24, 1994: The Citizens Flag Alliance is formed to lobby for a constitutional amendment against flag desecration.

April 12, 1995: Hawaii becomes the 49th state to adopt a resolution urging Congress to pass the flag-protection amendment. Only Vermont's legislature fails to pass such a measure.

June 28, 1995: The House votes 312-120 for a flag protection amendment, more than meeting the requirement for a two-thirds majority.

Dec. 12, 1995: The Senate votes 63-36 for the amendment, failing to reach a two-thirds majority.

Feb. 12, 1997: House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., and Rep. William Lipinski, D-Ill., introduce a new flag protection amendment in the House.

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