President Donald Trump has a flair for the dramatic, and that was on full display Monday when he signed an executive order titled “ Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag. ” “You burn a flag , you get one year in jail. You don’t get 10 years, you don’t get one month,” Trump said. “You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record, and you will see flag burning stopping immediately.”

Which would be quite an unconstitutional statement on a number of grounds, most prominently that no president can create new criminal laws with the stroke of a pen. But the actual wording of the executive order itself is much more limited than Trump’s rhetoric would suggest and signals a welcome change in the protection and respect our federal government pays to symbols of national unity.

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