Flag Burning Ban Flames Out

None by KCPW

Hatch: "I will not surrender."

(KCPW News) An effort to ban flag burning went up in flames last night as a Constitutional Amendment sponsored by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch came one vote shy of passage in the U.S. Senate. Hatch called the defeat merely "a setback."

Before senators began debate on the amendment that would allow Congress to outlaw desecration of the flag, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch asked "who could be against a measure like this?" Turns out 34 of his colleagues were - and that left Hatch one vote shy of the two-thirds required to pass the Constitutional Amendment.

He called the defeat "a setback," but vowed to try again saying, quote "for the Stars and Stripes, I will not give up and I will not surrender."

This is the closest Hatch's amendment has come to passing . . . the House of Representatives has already passed it six times. Hatch maintains his primary objective with the amendment is not protecting the flag, but protecting the power of Congress.

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