Donald Trump Legal and Executive Actions

The Justice Department moved to dismiss charges against veteran Jan Carey, who burned an American flag outside the White House after President Trump’s 2025 executive order urging prosecutors to use “content‑neutral” laws to target incitement or “fighting words” as a way to sidestep the Supreme Court’s 1989 flag‑burning decision. Carey had been indicted on two misdemeanors — lighting a fire “not in a designated area and receptacle” and lighting a fire “in a manner that threatened, caused damage to, and resulted in the burning of property, real property, and park resources,” each carrying up to six months in custody — and pleaded not guilty, saying he burned the flag to “put this to the test.”