WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- A constitutional amendment that would have allowed laws banning flag burning fell one vote short of passage Tuesday in the U.S. Senate.
Two-thirds of the Senate, 67 votes, were required before the measure could be sent on to the states.
Three Republicans and 12 Democrats crossed party lines in the 66-34 vote. They included Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on the Democratic side and Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority whip, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Robert Bennett of Utah on the Republican, The Washington Post reported.
A proposed bill put forward by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., also was defeated 64-36. Durbin's bill, which would not have changed the Constitution, would have made flag burning illegal if done on U.S. government property or intended to incite violence.
In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is speech protected by the First Amendment.
The amendment, if it had passed the Senate and been ratified by three-quarters of the states, would have allowed Congress to pass a flag-burning law that could not have been thrown out by the court.
