Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 137

AN ACT TO AMEND SUBCHAPTER XXIII, CHAPTER 3, TITLE 11, DELAWARE CODE, SO AS TO PREVENT AND PUNISH THE DESECRATION, MUTILATION OR IMPROPER USE OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND OF THIS STATE, AND OF ANY FLAG, STANDARD, COLOR, ENSIGN OR SHIELD AUTHORIZED BY LAW.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:

Section I. Subchapter XXIII, Chapter 3, Title 11, Delaware Code, is amended to read:

SUBCHAPTER XXIII. FLAGS

§531. Definition

The words flag, standard, color, ensign or shield, as used in this subchapter, shall include any flag, standard, color, ensign or shield, or copy, picture or representation thereof, made of any substance or represented or produced thereon, and of any size, evidently purporting to be such flag, standard, color, ensign or shield of the United States or of this state, or a copy, picture or representation thereof.

§0. Desecration No person shall, in any manner, for exhibition or display:

(a) Place or cause to be placed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing or advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, color, ensign or shield of the United States or of this state, or authorized by any law of the United States or this state; or

(a) Expose to public view any such flag, standard, color, ensign or shield upon which shall have been printed, painted or otherwise produced, or to which shall have been attached, appended, affixed or annexed any such word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing or advertisement; or

(c) Expose to public view for sale, manufacture, or otherwise, or to sell, give or have in possession for sale, for gift or for use for any purpose, any substance, being an article of merchandise, or receptacle, or thing for holding or carrying merchandise, upon or to which shall have been produced or attached any such flag, standard, color, ensign or shield, in order to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark or distinguish such article or substance.

§533. Mutilation

No person shall publicly mutilate, deface, defile, defy, trample upon, or by word or act cast contempt upon any such flag, standard, color, ensign or shield.

§0. Exceptions

This subchapter shall not apply to any act permitted by the statutes of the United States or of this state, or by the United States Army and Navy regulations, nor shall it apply to any printed or written document or production, stationery, ornament, picture or jewelry whereon shall be depicted said flag, standard, color, ensign or shield with no design or words thereon and disconnected with any advertisement.

§1. Penalty

Any violation of this subchapter shall be a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of not more than $100 or by imprisonment for not more than 30 days, or by both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the Court.

§533. Interpretation

This subchapter shall be so construed as to effectuate its general purpose and to make uniform the laws of the states which enact it.

§534. Short title

This subchapter may be titled as the Uniform Flag Law. Approved November 22, 1967.