President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Monday morning directing the prosecution of those who burn the American flag.
This comes amid an increase in protests in which rioters desecrate the American flag.
Anti-Israel protesters lowered three American flags outside Union Station last summer and burned them alongside an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Protesters against immigration enforcement in California torched American flags and waved Mexican ones. Pro-Palestine protesters on college campuses like Columbia University have also burned the flag.
The new order will mandate that suspects who desecrate the flag will be prosecuted, Fox News Digital first reported.
Trump had previously said anyone who burns the flag should “go to jail for one year, just automatic.”
“The American flag is the most sacred and cherished symbol of the United States of America, and desecrating it is uniquely and inherently offensive and provocative. It is a statement of contempt and hostility toward our Nation, and an act used by groups of foreign nationals calculated to intimidate and threaten violence against Americans,” a fact sheet on the order said.
The executive order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue litigation that would clarify the scope of the First Amendment as it relates to flag desecration. It also directs her to refer flag desecration cases that violate state and local laws to appropriate local authorities.
On June 21, 1989, the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the rights of protesters to burn the American flag, saying the flag is a protected expression under the First Amendment.