A 54-year-old Army veteran pleaded not guilty after he faced charges related to setting fire to an American flag in a federal park near the White House last month, The Hill reported.
Jan Carey is charged with igniting a fire in an undesignated area and lighting a fire causing damage to property or park resources after he burned the flag on Aug. 25 to protest President Donald Trump's executive order cracking down on flag burning, The Hill reported.
"I fought for every single one of your rights to express yourself in however you feel that you may want to express yourself. There's a First Amendment right to burn the American flag," Carey said last month while speaking into a bullhorn and referring to Trump as an "illegal fascist president." "No president can make a law, period."
Carey told reporters outside the courthouse that he served in the Army from 1989-2012, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I served this country for over 20 years, having taken an oath to upheld our Constitution. I did not take an oath to serve a dictator, a tyrant or a wannabe king," Carey said.
In signing his executive order, Trump said flag burning will carry a penalty of "one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing."
The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to "vigorously prosecute" people who burn the American flag while committing other criminal offenses. It also authorizes her to "pursue litigation to clarify the scope of the First Amendment exceptions in this area."
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that burning the American flag is protected free speech.
Trump's order does not itself establish the one-year jail penalty he mentioned, but it argues that burning flags in a way "likely to incite imminent lawless action" or that amounts to "fighting words" is not constitutionally protected.
"When you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels we've never seen before. People go crazy," Trump said.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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