A group calling itself “Friends Against Fascism Organization” announced it would hold a “tailgate” party on the University of Virginia campus Friday evening to burn American flags while serving “burgers, dogs and refreshing beverages.”
White House rapid response strategist Greg Price shared the group’s flyer on X.
However, the legitimacy of the “organization” planning the protest in the parking lot prior to a UVA volleyball match Friday night remains unclear. The university has never heard of the group.
The event is ostensibly in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order in August to prosecute flag burning when it incites violent crime.
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that burning the American flag was protected speech under the First Amendment.
The Trump executive order seeks to circumvent that ruling by calling for the prosecution of “those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country,” according to the order.
Kirk Wolff, a University of Virginia Law School student and reportedly a U.S. Navy veteran and U.S. Naval Academy graduate, told Fox News Digital he organized the event as a symbolic protest of the president’s order.
Fox Digital reported Wolff stated:
The president does not get to say what the law is; that is solely the province of the judiciary. He must be reminded that his political enemies are not military enemies and that he cannot stop free speech, expression and democracy. Many of us, including myself, signed the dotted line and agreed to fight for these ideals.
Stella's Place 