Chapter 34. To prevent and punish the desecration, mutilation, or improper use, within the District of Columbia, of the flag of the United States of America
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CHAP. 34.— An Act To prevent and punish the desecration, mutilation, or improper use, within the District of Columbia, of the flag of the United States of America. February 8, 1917.[[H. R. 14822](/us/bill/64/hr/14822).][[Public, No. 305](/us/pl/64/305).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, * District of Columbia.United States flag.Punishment for using, as advertisement, etc. That hereafter 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;
Mutilation, defacing, etc.or who, within the District of Columbia, shall publicly mutilate, deface, defile or defy, trample upon or cast contempt, either by word or act, upon any such flag, standard, colors or ensign, 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 Construction of object prohibited.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.
Approved, February 8, 1917.