Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 10:47:05 -0400
From: belmonte@cns.nyu.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
Message-Id: <199805281447.KAA15018@cns.nyu.edu>
To: senator@dpm.senate.gov, senator_al@damato.senate.gov
Subject: oppose SJ Res. 40 and SJ Res. 44

I write as your constituent to express my opposition to two proposed
Constitutional amendments due to come to the floor in June.  SJ Res. 40
would, if passed and ratified, give Congress "the power to prohibit the
physical desecration of the flag".  Such a policy addressing a concrete
symbol of the nation does not belong in the Constitution side by side with
articles that address abstract and general properties of government.  It flies
in the face of the First Amendment, and uggests that the principles on which
the United States was founded are too weak to withstand assaults on a mere
symbol.

SJ Res. 44, the proposed victims' rights amendment, would disrupt the
safeguards around defendants which have been guaranteed by the Bill of Rights
for the past two centuries.  The National Network to End Domestic Violence, the
National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, and the National
Organization of Women all oppose such an amendment.  The question of victims'
rights is an important one, but it can be addressed without tampering with 
existing Constitutional rights.