NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1971 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 295

SENATE BILL 178

 

 

AN ACT PROHIBITING THE DESECRATION OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE FLAG OF NORTH CAROLINA.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 14-381 is hereby rewritten to read as follows:

"§ 14-381.  Desecration of State and United States flag. — It shall be unlawful for any person wilfully and knowlingly to cast contempt upon any flag of the United States or upon any flag of North Carolina by public acts of physical contact including, but not limited to, mutilation, defiling, defacing or trampling. Any person violating this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisonment for not more than six months or both, in the discretion of the court.

The flag of the United States, as used in this section, shall be the same as defined in 4 U.S.C.A. 1 and 4 U.S.C.A. 2. The flag of North Carolina, as used in this section, shall be the same as defined in G.S. 144-1."

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 5th day of May, 1971.