Section
1. Flag; stripes and stars on
The
flag of the United States shall be thirteen horizontal stripes,
alternate red and white; and the union of the flag shall be
fifty stars, white in a blue field.
Section
2. Same; additional stars
On
the admission of a new State into the Union one star shall be
added to the union of the flag; and such addition shall take
effect on the fourth day of July then next succeeding such
admission.
Section
3. Use of flag for advertising purposes; mutilation of flag
Any
person who, within the District of Columbia, in any manner, for
exhibition or display, shall place or cause to be placed any
word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, or any
advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, colors, or
ensign of the United States of America; or shall expose or cause
to be exposed to public view any such flag, standard, colors, or
ensign upon which shall have been printed, painted, or otherwise
placed, or to which shall be attached, appended, affixed, or
annexed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, or drawing, or
any advertisement of any nature; or who, within the District of
Columbia, shall manufacture, sell, expose for sale, or to public
view, or give away or have in possession for sale, or to be given
away or for use for any purpose, any article or substance being
an article of merchandise, or a receptacle for merchandise or
article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise, upon
which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise
placed a representation of any such flag, standard, colors, or
ensign, to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or
distinguish the article or substance on which so placed shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine
not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment for not more than thirty
days, or both, in the discretion of the court. The words “flag,
standard, colors, or ensign”, as used herein, shall include
any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or
representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made
of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size
evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors,
or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a
representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors,
the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of
any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing
the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent
the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of
America.
Section
4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery
The
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: “I pledge allegiance to
the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for
which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.”, should be rendered by standing at
attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.
When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress
with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand
being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent,
face the flag, and render the military salute.
Section
5. Display and use of flag by civilians; codification of rules
and customs; definition
The
following codification of existing rules and customs pertaining
to the display and use of the flag of the United States of
America is established for the use of such civilians or civilian
groups or organizations as may not be required to conform with
regulations promulgated by one or more executive departments of
the Government of the United States. The flag of the United
States for the purpose of this chapter shall be defined according
to sections 1 and 2 of this title and Executive Order 10834
issued pursuant thereto.
Section
6. Time and occasions for display
(a)
It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise
to sunset on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open.
However, when a patriotic effect is desired, the flag may be
displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours
of darkness.
(b)
The flag should be hoisted briskly and lowered ceremoniously.
(c)
The flag should not be displayed on days when the weather is
inclement, except when an all weather flag is displayed.
(d)
The flag should be displayed on all days, especially on New Year’s
Day, January 1; Inauguration Day, January 20; Martin Luther King
Jr.’s birthday, third Monday in January; Lincoln’s
Birthday, February 12; Washington’s Birthday, third Monday
in February; Easter Sunday (variable); Mother’s Day, second
Sunday in May; Armed Forces Day, third Saturday in May; Memorial
Day (half-staff until noon), the last Monday in May; Flag Day,
June 14; Independence Day, July 4; Labor Day, first Monday in
September; Constitution Day, September 17; Columbus Day, second
Monday in October; Navy Day, October 27; Veterans Day, November
11; Thanksgiving Day, fourth Thursday in November; Christmas Day,
December 25; and such other days as may be proclaimed by the
President of the United States; the birthdays of States (date of
admission); and on State holidays.
(e)
The flag should be displayed daily on or near the main
administration building of every public institution.
(f)
The flag should be displayed in or near every polling place on
election days.
(g)
The flag should be displayed during school days in or near every
schoolhouse.
Section
7. Position and manner of display
The
flag, when carried in a procession with another flag or flags,
should be either on the marching right; that is, the flag’s
own right, or, if there is a line of other flags, in front of the
center of that line.
(a)
The flag should not be displayed on a float in a parade except
from a staff, or as provided in subsection (i) of this section.
(b)
The flag should not be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back
of a vehicle or of a railroad train or a boat. When the flag is
displayed on a motorcar, the staff shall be fixed firmly to the
chassis or clamped to the right fender.
(c)
No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the
same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of
America, except during church services conducted by naval
chaplains at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the
flag during church services for the personnel of the Navy. No
person shall display the flag of the United Nations or any other
national or international flag equal, above, or in a position of
superior prominence or honor to, or in place of, the flag of the
United States at any place within the United States or any
Territory or possession thereof: Provided, That nothing in this
section shall make unlawful the continuance of the practice
heretofore followed of displaying the flag of the United Nations
in a position of superior prominence or honor, and other national
flags in positions of equal prominence or honor, with that of the
flag of the United States at the headquarters of the United
Nations.
(d)
The flag of the United States of America, when it is displayed
with another flag against a wall from crossed staffs, should be
on the right, the flag’s own right, and its staff should be
in front of the staff of the other flag.
(e)
The flag of the United States of America should be at the center
and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of
States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and
displayed from staffs.
(f)
When flags of States, cities, or localities, or pennants of
societies are flown on the same halyard with the flag of the
United States, the latter should always be at the peak. When the
flags are flown from adjacent staffs, the flag of the United
States should be hoisted first and lowered last. No such flag or
pennant may be placed above the flag of the United States or to
the United States flag’s right.
(g)
When flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be
flown from separate staffs of the same height. The flags should
be of approximately equal size. International usage forbids the
display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in
time of peace.
(h)
When the flag of the United States is displayed from a staff
projecting horizontally or at an angle from the window sill,
balcony, or front of a building, the union of the flag should be
placed at the peak of the staff unless the flag is at half-staff.
When the flag is suspended over a sidewalk from a rope extending
from a house to a pole at the edge of the sidewalk, the flag
should be hoisted out, union first, from the building.
(i)
When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall,
the union should be uppermost and to the flag’s own right,
that is, to the observer’s left. When displayed in a window,
the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union or
blue field to the left of the observer in the street.
(j)
When the flag is displayed over the middle of the street, it
should be suspended vertically with the union to the north in an
east and west street or to the east in a north and south street.
(k)
When used on a speaker’s platform, the flag, if displayed
flat, should be displayed above and behind the speaker. When
displayed from a staff in a church or public auditorium, the flag
of the United States of America should hold the position of
superior prominence, in advance of the audience, and in the
position of honor at the clergyman’s or speaker’s right
as he faces the audience. Any other flag so displayed should be
placed on the left of the clergyman or speaker or to the right of
the audience.
(l)
The flag should form a distinctive feature of the ceremony of
unveiling a statue or monument, but it should never be used as
the covering for the statue or monument.
(m)
The flag, when flown at half-staff, should be first hoisted to
the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff
position. The flag should be again raised to the peak before it
is lowered for the day. On Memorial Day the flag should be
displayed at half-staff until noon only, then raised to the top
of the staff. By order of the President, the flag shall be flown
at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United
States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or
possession, as a mark of respect to their memory. In the event of
the death of other officials or foreign dignitaries, the flag is
to be displayed at half-staff according to Presidential
instructions or orders, or in accordance with recognized customs
or practices not inconsistent with law. In the event of the death
of a present or former official of the government of any State,
territory, or possession of the United States, the Governor of
that State, territory, or possession may proclaim that the
National flag shall be flown at half-staff. The flag shall be
flown at half-staff 30 days from the death of the President or a
former President; 10 days from the day of death of the Vice
President, the Chief Justice or a retired Chief Justice of the
United States, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
from the day of death until interment of an Associate Justice of
the Supreme Court, a Secretary of an executive or military
department, a former Vice President, or the Governor of a State,
territory, or possession; and on the day of death and the
following day for a Member of Congress. The flag shall be flown
at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day, unless that day is
also Armed Forces Day. As used in this subsection—
(1)
the term “half-staff” means the position of the flag
when it is one-half the distance between the top and bottom of
the staff;
(2)
the term “executive or military department” means any
agency listed under sections 101 and 102 of title 5, United
States Code; and
(3)
the term “Member of Congress” means a Senator, a
Representative, a Delegate, or the Resident Commissioner from
Puerto Rico.
(n)
When the flag is used to cover a casket, it should be so placed
that the union is at the head and over the left shoulder. The
flag should not be lowered into the grave or allowed to touch the
ground.
(o)
When the flag is suspended across a corridor or lobby in a
building with only one main entrance, it should be suspended
vertically with the union of the flag to the observer’s left
upon entering. If the building has more than one main entrance,
the flag should be suspended vertically near the center of the
corridor or lobby with the union to the north, when entrances are
to the east and west or to the east when entrances are to the
north and south. If there are entrances in more than two
directions, the union should be to the east.
Section
8. Respect for flag
No
disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of
America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing.
Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional
flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
(a)
The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as
a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life
or property.
(b)
The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the
ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
(c)
The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always
aloft and free.
(d)
The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or
drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in
folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white,
and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the
middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s
desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in
general.
(e)
The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in
such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or
damaged in any way.
(f)
The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
(g)
The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it,
nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure,
design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
(h)
The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving,
holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
(i)
The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any
manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles
as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise
impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed
for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be
fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
(j)
No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic
uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of
military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic
organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself
considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a
replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
(k)
The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a
fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified
way, preferably by burning.
Section
9. Conduct during hoisting, lowering or passing of flag
During
the ceremony of hoisting or lowering the flag or when the flag is
passing in a parade or in review, all persons present except
those in uniform should face the flag and stand at attention with
the right hand over the heart. Those present in uniform should
render the military salute. When not in uniform, men should
remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the
left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Aliens should stand
at attention. The salute to the flag in a moving column should be
rendered at the moment the flag passes.
Section
10. Modification of rules and customs by President
Any
rule or custom pertaining to the display of the flag of the
United States of America, set forth herein, may be altered,
modified, or repealed, or additional rules with respect thereto
may be prescribed, by the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
of the United States, whenever he deems it to be appropriate or
desirable; and any such alteration or additional rule shall be
set forth in a proclamation.