S.C.R. No. 24
                             SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    1-1        WHEREAS, The United States flag belongs to all Americans and
    1-2  ought not be desecrated by any one individual, even under
    1-3  principles of free expression, any more than we would allow
    1-4  desecration of the Declaration of Independence, Statue of Liberty,
    1-5  Lincoln Memorial, Yellowstone National Park, or any other common
    1-6  inheritance which the people of this land hold dear; and
    1-7        WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court, in contravention of
    1-8  this postulate, has by a narrow decision held to be a First
    1-9  Amendment freedom the license to destroy in protest this cherished
   1-10  symbol of our national heritage; and
   1-11        WHEREAS, Whatever legal arguments may be offered to support
   1-12  this contention, the incineration or other mutilation of the flag
   1-13  of the United States of America is repugnant to all those who have
   1-14  saluted it, paraded beneath it on the Fourth of July, been saluted
   1-15  by its half-mast configuration, or raised it inspirationally in
   1-16  remote corners of the globe where they have defended the ideals of
   1-17  which it is representative; and
   1-18        WHEREAS, The members of the Legislature of the State of
   1-19  Texas, while respectful of dissenting political views, themselves
   1-20  dissent forcefully from the court decision, echoing the beliefs of
   1-21  all patriotic Americans that this flag is OUR flag and not a
   1-22  private property subject to a private prerogative to maim or
   1-23  despoil in the passion of individual protest; and
   1-24        WHEREAS, As stated by Chief Justice William Rehnquist,
    2-1  writing for three of the four justices who comprised the minority
    2-2  in the case, "Surely one of the high purposes of a democratic
    2-3  society is to legislate against conduct that is regarded as evil
    2-4  and profoundly offensive to the majority of people--whether it be
    2-5  murder, embezzlement, pollution, or flag burning"; and
    2-6        WHEREAS, This legislature concurs with the court minority
    2-7  that the Stars and Stripes is deserving of a unique sanctity, free
    2-8  to wave in perpetuity over the spacious skies where our bald eagles
    2-9  fly, the fruited plain above which our mountain majesties soar, and
   2-10  the venerable heights to which our melting pot of peoples and their
   2-11  posterity aspire; now, therefore, be it
   2-12        RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas
   2-13  hereby petition the Congress of the United States of America to
   2-14  propose to the states an amendment to the United States
   2-15  Constitution, protecting the American flag and 50 state flags from
   2-16  wilful desecration and exempting such desecration from
   2-17  constitutional construction as a First Amendment right; and, be it
   2-18  further
   2-19        RESOLVED, That official copies of this resolution be prepared
   2-20  and forwarded by the Texas secretary of state to the speaker of the
   2-21  house of representatives and president of the senate of the United
   2-22  States Congress and to all members of the Texas delegation to that
   2-23  congress, with the request that it be officially entered in the
   2-24  Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United
   2-25  States; and, be it further
   2-26        RESOLVED, That a copy of the resolution be prepared and
   2-27  forwarded also to President Bill Clinton, asking that he lend his
    3-1  support to the proposal and adoption of a flag-protection
    3-2  constitutional amendment; and, be it finally
    3-3        RESOLVED, That official copies likewise be sent to the
    3-4  presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states,
    3-5  inviting them to join with Texas to secure this amendment and to
    3-6  restore this nation's banners to their rightful status of treasured
    3-7  reverence.