Flag-burning amendment fails by a vote

WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday fell a single vote short of approving a constitutional amendment designed to ban flag burning, in the closest vote to date on an issue that Republicans hope will motivate conservative voters to go to the polls this fall.

Sixty-six senators voted in favor -- three more than the last time the Senate took up the measure, in 2000, but one short of the two-thirds majority needed for constitutional amendments.

Republicans pressed for the amendment as a mechanism for Congress to demonstrate its respect for troops and veterans. They also touted it as a way to restore what they see as the proper balance of power between the branches of government, since the Supreme Court stripped states and Congress of the power to outlaw flag desecration.

But critics charged that Republican leaders were seeking to rile up their base with a solution to a problem that barely exists. Though data on flag burning and desecration is spotty, both sides agree the number of incidents is small -- perhaps as few as three or four per year nationwide -- and most of those cases can be prosecuted under statutes governing public burning or breach of the peace.

``This amendment would, for the first time, amend the Bill of Rights," said Senator Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat. ``The most important principle of all -- the principle that has made this country a beacon of hope and inspiration for oppressed peoples throughout the world -- is the right of free expression."

Senator John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the flag can best be honored by keeping intact the constitutional liberties it stands for. Kerry said he supports laws protecting the flag but does not want to change the Constitution to achieve that end .

But Senator Orrin Hatch, the measure's chief sponsor, said those who voted against the amendment could be punished at the polls.

``Nobody loses a thing by voting for this, and we gain a great deal by supporting our troops, our veterans," said Hatch, a Utah Republican.

Senator Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican, said senators have a responsibility to lay the issue before the people by giving state legislatures the chance to vote on the amendment.

Fourteen Democrats voted with Republicans in favor of the amendment, while three Republicans -- Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Senator Robert Bennett of Utah, and Senate m ajority w hip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky -- voted with Democrats against it.

Even some Democrats who voted for the amendment blasted Republicans for using precious legislative time on such a measure when issues like the war in Iraq and healthcare are far more important to people.

``No matter how strongly you feel about flag burning, is this the right time to do it, while these other issues are laying dormant?" said Senate minority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who voted for the amendment. ``I don't think so."

The amendment would have empowered Congress to ``prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The particular circumstances under which flag desecration would be a crime would have been determined by separate legislation, after the amendment was added to the Constitution.

As an alternative to the amendment, Democrats proposed a bill that would have made it a federal crime to destroy a flag on federal property or to desecrate a flag with the intention of inciting violence. The Democratic alternative also would have prohibited demonstrations at soldiers' funerals.

But Republicans argued such a measure would be found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which has made clear that flag-burning is protected by the First Amendment. It failed, 36-64.