WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order requiring the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute people for burning the American flag, an activity that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is legitimate political expression protected by the U.S. Constitution.

NOTE: The video is from a previous report.

The order the Republican president signed in the Oval Office acknowledged the court's 5-4 ruling in a case from Texas in 1989, but said there is still room to prosecute flag burning if it "is likely to incite imminent lawless action" or amounts to "fighting words."

In that case, the justices ruled 5-4 that the First Amendment protects flag burning as legitimate political expression. The late Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative icon who Trump has re

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