 (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump proposed on Tuesday a penalty -- including possible jail time or loss of citizenship -- for burning the American flag, in spite of two US Supreme Court rulings that protect the act under the First Amendment as a form of free speech. “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” Trump wrote in a post to his social media account. A 1958 Supreme Court decision rejected the practice of stripping U.S. citizenship as a form of criminal punishment, on the grounds that it violates Eighth Amendment protections against "cruel and unusual punishment." But Trump's opposition to the protection of flag burning puts him at odds with conservative leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whom Trump has praised as a "brilliant Supreme Court Justice, one of the best of all time." “If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag,” he said last year, adding an important disclaimer: “But I am not king.” In an interview with CNN, he explained the distinction simply: Flag-burning is a form of expression, and therefore is protected by the First Amendment. Bush, before it was ruled unconstitutional, and the Flag Protection Act of 2005, another failed attempt to criminalize flag burning, was co-sponsored by then-Sen. Hillary Clinton. A constitutional amendment that would allow the government to ban flag desecration has been proposed multiple times but has never passed. It was last voted down in 2006 in the Senate, where current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Democratic presidential candidate Lincoln Chafee, then a Republican, were among three GOP lawmakers to vote against it. "The Supreme Court has held that that activity is a protected First Amendment right, a form of unpleasant speech, and in this country we have a long tradition of respecting unpleasant speech. It's not immediately clear what prompted Trump's tweet Tuesday morning, though the national discussion of respect for the flag has been restarted in part following a flag burning November 10 on the campus of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, as part of a post-election protest. When asked about the Supreme Court rulings on CNN's "New Day," Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller repeatedly dismissed questions about the constitutional protections of flag burning. Poised to announce his pick of Rep. Tom Price to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and with a day of meetings slated — including one with onetime foe Mitt Romney — Donald Trump hopped on Twitter to talk about where his attention was focused. And I think you know that and I think the vast majority of Americans would agree," Miller told CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. "The President-elect is a very strong supporter of the First Amendment, but there's a big difference between that and burning the American flag." Let’s get in and talk about how we’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare and these fantastic picks that the president-elect announced this morning.” 
 
 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) readily acknowledged during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that flag burning is constitutionally protected free speech, telling panelist Willie Geist that “we’ll protect our First Amendment” even though he does not agree with the practice. I think there should be some punishment, but right now, the Supreme Court decision is that people are free to express themselves that way.” 
 
 McCain declined to offer any further comment on Trump’s social media post, telling a CNN reporter that the president-elect’s bombast is a distraction from the work he faces on Capitol Hill.
– Donald Trump believes in free speech and that flag-burning should be illegal. In what the Washington Post is calling "Donald Trump v. the First Amendment, part five," the president-elect decried flag-burning in a tweet on Tuesday, noting those guilty of the practice should perhaps spend a year in jail or even lose their US citizenship. "Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag—if they do, there must be consequences," Trump said. Though flag-burning remains controversial, the Supreme Court declared the practice to be a protected form of free speech in 1989 and 1990, reports CNN, which Trump bashed Monday night. Even conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia—whom Trump has called "one of the best of all time"—believed flag burning should be protected based on a "textual" reading of the First Amendment. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Sean Duffy expressed similar sentiments Tuesday. A Trump transition rep notes "the President-elect is a very strong supporter of the First Amendment, but there's a big difference between that and burning the American flag." Though flag-burning is legal, Trump's desired punishment is not. A 1958 Supreme Court decision banned the stripping of US citizenship as a criminal penalty, reports Politico.