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Gov. Code, § 434.5 · Chapter 3. Display of Flags

Gov. Code, § 434.5

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) As used in this section, the following terms have the following meaning:

(1) “Legal right” means the freedom of use and enjoyment generally exercised by owners and occupiers of land.

(2) “Local government agency” means a county, city, whether general law or chartered, city and county, town, municipal corporation, school district or other district, political subdivision, or any board, commission, or agency thereof, or other local agency.

(b) (1) No person, private entity, or governmental agency shall adopt any rule, regulation, or ordinance, or enter into any agreement or covenant, that prevents any person or private entity that would otherwise have the legal right to display a Flag of the United States on private property from exercising that right, unless it is used as, or in conjunction with, an advertising display.

(2) Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to prevent a city, county, or city and county from imposing reasonable restrictions as to the time, place, and manner of placement or display of a Flag of the United States when necessary for the preservation of the public’s health, safety, or order.

(c) (1) A local government agency may not adopt any policy or regulation that prohibits or restricts an employee of that agency from displaying a Flag of the United States, or a pin of that flag, on his or her person, in his or her workplace, or on a local government agency vehicle operated by that employee.

(2) Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to prevent a local government agency from imposing reasonable restrictions as to the time, place, and manner of placement or display of a Flag of the United States when necessary for the preservation of the order or discipline of the workplace.

(d) No restrictions solely to promote aesthetic considerations shall be imposed pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) or paragraph (2) of subdivision (c).

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 73, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=434.5.
Text hash
sha256 4400dfcd5a6dfb56b655ec4c83523c1d90a60eb376942170fdbfb62c9d0e2745
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.