Officials at Saint Louis University surrendered this week in a fight over whether a couple of students from Ohio could hang Old Glory from their dorm room's balcony.

Seniors Nicholas Payne, of Cincinnati, and Thomas Lundeen, of Cleveland, had been threatened with fines for violating a school rule against attaching anything to the balconies.

Payne put the flag up right after the 9/11 attacks. School officials told him to take it down a few months later. He ignored the warning until, almost two years later, the university threatened to take action against him.

This is a free speech issue. The Constitution protects those who burn the flag, and it also protects those who choose to fly it.

Payne contacted his Congressman, Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, who also happens to be chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution. Chabot asked the university to reconsider.

President Lawrence Biondi replied that the rule was meant to "assure an atmosphere advantageous to all ideas and belief systems, an appearance of cleanliness and avoidance of a cluttered appearance . . ."

Come again? These aren't a couple of college kids waving a beer banner and cheering the Billikens (although from a free speech perspective, we think that's fine too). Payne and Lundeen are patriots, displaying their nation's flag in a time of war.

"Americans have a right to protest U.S. policy, but they also have a right to support it," Chabot said.

Sometimes the obvious has to be said out loud before people notice it.

The Congressman's words apparently opened some eyes. Word came Friday night that the university has ammended its balcony ban to allow display of the American flag.