Antonin Scalia, New York Times (July 19, 2012).
“

If I were king, I would not allow people to go about burning the American flag. However, we have a First Amendment which says that the right of free speech shall not be abridged. And it is addressed, in particular, to speech critical of the government.

— Antonin Scalia on Flag desecration

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "If I were king, I would not allow people to go about burning the American flag. However, we have a First Amendment which says that the right of free speech shall not be abridged. And it is addressed, in particular, to speech critical of the government." in the context of "Antonin Scalia, New York Times (July 19, 2012)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Flag desecration" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Antonin Scalia

About Antonin Scalia

Antonin Gregory Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who served for 29 years, from 1986 until his death. He was appointed to the Court by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1986.