Conservative political pundit Nick Sortor announced Wednesday on X: “President Trump announces he will be supporting legislation to jail people for a mandatory ONE YEAR for burning the American flag in the street We’ve now seen illegals do this MULTIPLE times in Los Angeles over the past several days. ALL patriots should support this!”
U.S. Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) responded to Sortor’s push for Trump’s flag-burning law by writing: “Bring this bill to the floor. This is an easy No vote for anyone who took their oath to the Constitution seriously.”
Bring this bill to the floor. This is an easy No vote for anyone who took their oath to the Constitution seriously. https://t.co/M2mElJEh83
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) June 11, 2025
Massey has been standing out distinctly from the MAGA crowd recently, making decisions that go against the GOP grain when an issue he feels strongly about is pitted against mere party loyalty for loyalty’s sake.
In May, he was one of only two House Republicans to defy Speaker Mike Johnson and vote against the “big beautiful” Trump agenda bill, voting nay on the grounds that the bill would explode the deficit, something he said his conservative principles can’t abide.
On the issue of burning flags, choosing principled adherence to the Constitution (and his “oath”) over autocratic fiat isn’t a hard decision for the Congressman. Flag burning is explicitly protected by the First Amendment per Supreme Court rulings in Texas v. Johnson (1989) and United States v. Eichman (1990).
Note: In response to Texas v. Johnson, Congress passed the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which attempted to circumvent the Johnson ruling by prohibiting mistreatment of the flag without regard to any message being conveyed.
