Hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to prosecute American flag burnings “to the fullest extent possible,” it was put to the test steps away from the Oval Office.
The Secret Service detained a person in Lafayette Park, just outside of the White House, around 6:15 p.m. Aug. 25 for “igniting an object,” an agency spokesperson told USA TODAY. Outlets including the Washington Post and Fox 5 DC identified the object as an American flag.
The person was turned over to U.S. Park Police, which has jurisdiction over the area, the spokesperson said.
The U.S. Park Police said it arrested a person for violating the National Park Service’s fire policy, which prohibits setting fires “except in designated areas or receptacles and under conditions that may be established by the superintendent.”
Neither agency provided the person’s name nor confirmed the object involved was an American flag. USA TODAY reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
A CNN video showed a man lighting the flag on fire and saying it’s “our First Amendment right to burn this flag.”
“We burn this flag in protest to that president who feels that it’s his right to do whatever he wants, make whatever law he wants, regardless if it’s legal or illegal,” the man said, according to the video.
The video shows him being handcuffed and led away by Secret Service personnel.
What to know: Is flag burning protected speech? What to know about Trump’s order
The man said he was a 20-year combat veteran, CNN reported.
Trump’s Aug. 25 order described the flag as the country’s “most sacred and cherished symbol” and said its desecration is “uniquely offensive and provocative.”
Though Trump has long supported a one-year jail sentence for burning an American flag, the order doesn’t include required legal penalties.
The order directed the attorney general to prioritize enforcing laws against flag-burning incidents that “violate applicable, content-neutral laws, while causing harm unrelated to expression, consistent with the First Amendment.”
Examples of such acts include violent crimes, hate crimes and property crimes.
“If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Aug. 25. “You will see flag burning stop immediately.”
The Supreme Court in 1989 ruled in favor of a man who burned an American flag to protest then-President Ronald Reagan’s administration. The landmark case established that flag burning alone is protected political speech.
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man arrested outside White House for burning American flag
