On June 27, 2006, a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit physical desecration of the American flag failed by a single vote to receive the two-thirds majority support in the US Senate required to send it to the states for ratification. The US House of Representatives passed the same amendment in June 2005, and the it was approved by the US Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2006. The US Supreme Court ruled in the 1989 case Texas v. Johnson that flag burning is protected under the First Amendment. Despite this, the legislatures of every state save Vermont have at one point passed resolutions encouraging the US Congress to pass an amendment banning the desecration of the American flag.

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