§ 3. — Use of flag for advertising purposes; mutilation of flag.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 4USC3]
TITLE 4--FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES
CHAPTER 1--THE FLAG
Sec. 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.
(July 30, 1947, ch. 389, 61 Stat. 642; Pub. L. 90-381, Sec. 3, July 5,
1968, 82 Stat. 291.)
Amendments
1968--Pub. L. 90-381 struck out ``; 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,'' after ``substance on which so placed''.
