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Flag Burning Is Legal. It Shouldn’t Be.
Charles Fain Lehman /

Flag Burning Is Legal. It Shouldn’t Be.

People who desecrate the American flag have no interest in freedom of speech.
Dispatch Debates
Illustration by Noah Hickey/The Dispatch (Photos via Getty Images).
Illustration by Noah Hickey/The Dispatch (Photos via Getty Images).
In our polarized era, there are fewer and fewer spaces where people who disagree can do so productively and in good faith. The Dispatch’s Debate Series aims to be an outlier: a regular feature where two writers with opposing views can hash out some of the thorniest political and cultural issues roiling the national conversation. If you have an idea for a future topic, please let us know at debates@thedispatch.com.

Earlier this year, vicious protests broke out against ICE agents in Seattle. According to local reporting, protesters blocked the Seattle federal building before pulling down its American flags and lighting them on fire. It was not the first time that recent anti-Trump administration protests have culminated in flag burning, of course: Protesters did the same thing in Los Angeles and D.C. The sight of a burning flag has grown so common, in fact, that President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at encouraging the prosecution of flag desecration-related crimes.

Photo of Charles Fain Lehman
Charles Fain Lehman

Charles Fain Lehman is a contributing writer at The Dispatch, fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and senior editor of City Journal.

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