When to lower the flag
Memorial Day is the only holiday specified in the U.S. code as a day to lower the flag to half-staff, but recent presidents have established laws to expand the practice to the following days:
May 15: Peace Officers Memorial Day - established by Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
Last Monday in May: Memorial Day - U.S. code dictates flags lowered to half-staff until noon and then raised.
July 27: Korean War Veterans Armistice Day - sometimes observed despite law expiring in 2003.
Early October: National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service - established by joint resolution in 2001.
Sept. 11: Patriot Day - established by joint resolution in 2001.
Dec. 7: National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - established by joint resolution in 1994.
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A look at the recent presidents and what they’ve lowered the flag for.
Only on mydaytondailynews.com
A look at the recent presidents and what they’ve lowered the flag for.
For more than a third of the summer, American flags have flown at half-staff signifying a nation in mourning over terrorist attacks and the deaths of U.S. citizens.
The lowered flag has been a symbol of Barack Obama’s presidency, due in part to a surge of national tragedies but also because the rules about when the flag flies at half-staff appear to be expanding.
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The I-Team dug into the history and laws that govern the American flag and found that although the law is very narrow in its definition of who can order flags lowered and when, the symbolic gesture is becoming much more common.
Obama has ordered the flag lowered 70 times during his presidency, according to an analysis of his proclamations published on the Federal Register website and whitehouse.gov. That eclipses George W. Bush with 58 such proclamations and Bill Clinton with 48.
So far in 2016, U.S. flags have been lowered for 39 days in Ohio. Last year by the end of July, the flag had only been lowered four times for a total of eight days.
Origin of law
Flying flags at half-staff was done via haphazard traditions until President Eisenhower in 1954 laid out some basic rules.
"By order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States government and the Governor of a state, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory," according to the U.S. Code Title 4, Chapter 1.
It also says presidents can lower the flag for the death of a foreign dignitary and prescribes how many days the flag should be at half-staff for different people. It is 30 days for a president, 10 days for a vice president, chief justice and speaker of the House, down to two days — the day of the death and the following day — for other members of Congress.
The flag code doesn’t mention first ladies, former members of congress, or anyone who isn’t a government figure, but many notable deaths have been honored outside the letter of the law. George W. Bush lowered flags for Bob Hope, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks and Lady Bird Johnson in addition to former President Gerald Ford and Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
Obama has honored the deaths of government figures including former House Speaker Tom Foley and senators Arlen Spector and Ted Kennedy, but has also lowered the flag 16 times for terrorist attacks, mass shootings and natural disasters.
Obama also ordered flags lowered for the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death and the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Expression of mourning
Presidents are increasingly using the proclamations to set a moral agenda and show patriotism, said Brandon Rottinghaus, associate professor of political science at the University of Houston. Rottinghaus and his colleague, Jeremy D. Bailey, have gathered data on all presidential proclamations.
“The president kind of places himself at the center of the moral and political universe,” in a moment of national tragedy, Rottinghaus said.
“There’s a kind of acceleration of outrage that creates this expectation that the president will always do this.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the flag proclamations during a press conference in June.
“An order from the President of the United States to order the lowering of the flag is a symbolic expression of national mourning,” he said.
Expanded use
Although Memorial Day is the only holiday singled out in the flag code, presidents are allowed to change the rules and make exceptions whenever they deem it “appropriate or desirable,” the law states.
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Sometimes local jurisdictions order flags lowered, which ignores the protocol which holds only the president or a governor can issue such proclamations.
In 2005, Fairfield lost three sons in less than 90 days when Lance Cpl. Taylor Prazynski, PFC Tim Hines, and Lance Cpl. Michael Cifuentes all died fighting in Iraq. The city lowered flags in town during their funeral processions.
“That was a sad time,” said Mayor Steve Miller, who was a councilman and acting mayor in 2005. “These are our heroes. I think we owe them some kind of respect whether it follows protocol or not.”
Flags were also lowered in Hamilton last year for fallen firefighter Patrick Wolterman.
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