Overview

• The directive tells Attorney General Pam Bondi to prioritize prosecutions when flag desecration accompanies violent conduct, property damage, civil-rights offenses, or other violations.
• Federal agencies are to refer cases to state and local prosecutors and to seek visa revocations, halted residency or naturalization, and removal for noncitizens tied to flag desecration.
• The order authorizes litigation to test First Amendment limits but does not itself criminalize flag burning, despite Trump's public remark that offenders should serve one year in jail.
• Supreme Court rulings in Texas v. Johnson (1989) and United States v. Eichman (1990) established that flag burning is protected symbolic speech.
• Hours after the signing, a person was arrested for burning a U.S. flag near the White House, as civil-liberties groups and some conservative voices condemned the policy as unconstitutional.