While Richard Marles is in the United States having talks about how far Australia is willing to go to protect the Aukus deal (having said that, Anthony Albanese has been making a lot of mentions of ‘sovereignty’ lately, which is not necessarily aimed at the domestic audience) here is what is happening in the ‘freedom’ loving United States, as reported by AAP:

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order requiring the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute people for burning the American flag, an activity the Supreme Court has ruled is legitimate political expression protected by the Constitution.

The order the Republican president signed on Monday in the Oval Office acknowledged the court’s 5-4 ruling in a case from Texas in 1989, but said there is still room to prosecute flag burning if it “is likely to incite imminent lawless action” or amounts to “fighting words”.

In that case, the justices ruled 5-4 that the First Amendment protects flag burning as legitimate political expression. The late Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative icon who Trump has repeatedly praised, was in the majority.

Trump Monday said burning the US flag “incites riots at levels we’ve never seen before,” with some people “going crazy” over burning it and others expressing anger at people for burning it.

He did not offer examples.