Section 136. Exhibition or display of the flag  


Latest version.
  • Any person who: a.  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, color, shield or  ensign  of  the
      United  States  of America, or the state of New York, or shall expose or
      cause to be exposed to public  view  any  such  flag,  standard,  color,
      shield  or ensign, upon which after the first day of September, nineteen
      hundred and five, 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
        b.  Shall  expose  to public view, manufacture, sell, expose for sale,
      give away, or have in possession for sale, or to give away, or  for  use
      for  any  purpose,  any  article,  or  substance,  being  an  article of
      merchandise, or a receptacle of merchandise  or  article  or  thing  for
      carrying  or transporting merchandise, upon which after the first day of
      September, nineteen hundred five,  shall  have  been  printed,  painted,
      attached,  or  otherwise  placed,  a  representation  of  any such flag,
      standard, color, shield or ensign,  to  advertise,  call  attention  to,
      decorate,  mark,  or  distinguish,  the article or substance on which so
      placed, or
        c. Shall print, engrave, or otherwise place or cause  to  be  printed,
      engraved or otherwise placed on any blank check, bill head, letter head,
      envelope  or  other  business  stationery,  a representation of any such
      flag, standard, color, shield or ensign, or shall  use  any  such  blank
      check, bill head, letter head, envelope or other stationery for business
      purposes or correspondence, or
        d.  Shall publicly mutilate, deface, defile, or defy, trample upon, or
      cast contempt upon either by words or act, or
        e. Shall raffle or place in  pawn  any  such  flag,  standard,  color,
      shield or ensign, or
        f.  Shall  publicly carry or display any emblem, placard or flag which
      casts contempt, either by word or act,  upon  the  flag  of  the  United
      States of America, or
        g.  Shall publicly use or cause any such flag, standard, color, shield
      or ensign, to  be  publicly  used  as  a  receptacle  for  the  placing,
      depositing  or  collecting of money or any other article or thing, shall
      be guilty of a misdemeanor.
        The words flag, standard, color, shield or ensign,  as  used  in  this
      section,  shall  include any flag, standard, color, shield or ensign, or
      any picture or representation, of either thereof, made of any substance,
      or represented on any substance, and of any size,  evidently  purporting
      to  be,  either of, said flag, standard, color, shield or ensign, of the
      United States of America, or of the state of New York, or a picture or a
      representation, of either thereof, upon which shall be shown the colors,
      the stars, and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or by which
      the person seeing the same, without deliberation may believe the same to
      represent the flag, colors, standard, shield or  ensign  of  the  United
      States of America or of the state of New York.
        This  section  shall  not  apply to any act expressly permitted by the
      statutes of the United States of America, or by the United  States  army
      and  navy  regulations,  nor  shall  it  be  construed  to  apply  to  a
      certificate, diploma, warrant, or commission of appointment  to  office,
      ornamental  picture,  article  of jewelry, stationery for use in private
      correspondence, or newspaper or periodical, on any  of  which  shall  be
      printed, painted or placed, said flag, standard, color, shield or ensign
      disconnected and apart from any advertisement.
    
        The possession by any person, other than a public officer, as such, of
      any  such  flag,  standard,  color,  shield or ensign, on which shall be
      anything made unlawful at any time by this section, or of any article or
      substance or thing on which shall be anything made unlawful at any  time
      by  this  section  shall  be  presumptive  evidence  that the same is in
      violation of this section, and was made, done or created after the first
      day of September, nineteen hundred five, and that such  flag,  standard,
      color,  shield or ensign, or article, substance, or thing, did not exist
      on the first day of September, nineteen hundred and five.