109th Congress / Senate / 2nd session / Vote 189

• Question: On the Joint Resolution
• Bill: S J RES 12
• Vote description: S.J.Res.12 as Amended; A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.
• Vote type: 2/3 (Help)
  A two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required for approval or passage. Used for suspension calendar bills in the House and certain Senate votes.
• Result: Defeated, 66-34.
• Date/time: June 27, 2006, 6:14 p.m.
• Republican majority opinion: Yes (Help)
  The position of more than 50 percent of voting Republicans. "None" means an equal split between "Yes" and "No."
• Democrat majority opinion: No (Help)
  The position of more than 50 percent of voting Democrats. "None" means an equal split between "Yes" and "No."

Key Vote Analysis

This vote would have given Senate approval to a proposed constitutional amendment that would give Congress the authority to ban 'desecration of the American flag.' Known as the "Flag Burning" amendment, it failed in the Senate by a single vote. The 66 to 34 tally was just one vote shy of the two-thirds majority required to submit the amendment to the states for ratification. The House approved the amendment June 22, 2005.

The vote has become something of a biannual ritual on Capitol Hill since the Republicans won control in the 1994 elections (this was the sixth attempt since 1995). While support for the measure has slowly ebbed in the House (the last vote, in 2005, earned the support of 286 representatives -- down from 312 for the first effort), it has grown over time in the Senate (63 senators voted for a version of the amendment in 2000). Supporters failed to find the sixty-seventh vote this time around, so the proposed amendment failed to be approved by both chambers of Congress as required by the Constitution.

Three Republicans -- Robert F. Bennett (Utah), Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) and GOP Whip Mitch McConnell (Ky.) -- voted against the amendment, while fourteen Democrats voted for it.

The proposed amendment said: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." If the Senate had approved it, the amendment would have been submitted to the 50 states, with approval from 38 states needed to make it part of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court overturned a Texas law in 1989, ruling 5 to 4 that burning an American flag in protest is a form of political speech protected under the First Amendment. Congress later passed a federal anti-flag-desecration law, but the high court invalidated it on the same grounds.

"Behind the constitutional rhetoric were cold political considerations," The Washington Post reported. "Republicans are eager to energize conservative voters this fall, and the flag initiative -- even if doomed to fail -- is seen as a sure-fire way to inspire them, especially a week before Independence Day."

See other key votes in the 109th Congress

Vote totals