Pen. Code, § 653.1 · Chapter 2. Of Other and Miscellaneous Offenses
Pen. Code, § 653.1
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) No person or group shall release, outdoors, balloons made of electrically conductive material and filled with a gas lighter than air, as part of a public or civic event, promotional activity, or product advertisement.
(b) Any person who violates this section shall be guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100). Any person who violates this section who has been previously convicted twice of violating this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(c) This section shall not apply to manned hot air balloons, or to balloons used in governmental or scientific research projects.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 262, Sec. 2. (AB 2450) Effective January 1, 2019.
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=PEN§ionNum=653.1.
- Text hash
- sha256 64fd7159729b3234b2424b7f9e6c57a1e989ec52e1a42a94d0a01bcb4ca08f98
- 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.