DENVER-
The Senate voted Monday to relax an earlier law meant to protect the American flag, giving initial backing to a measure that would allow schools and airports to keep banners of other countries on permanent display indoors.
The measure would also allow POW-MIA flags to be displayed along with the Colorado and U.S. flags outside public buildings.
Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, said veterans’ flags were overlooked in a previous law to tighten restrictions on flag displays.
Under the current law, foreign flags can be displayed only temporarily in public buildings. The bill would allow foreign flags to be permanently displayed inside public buildings as long as the U.S. flag was also included and displayed more prominently, following the federal flag code. Williams said schools and Denver International Airport must periodically move their foreign flags around under the current law in order to make them temporary displays.
Schools already must display a U.S. flag in each classroom, and that wouldn’t change under the proposal (House Bill 1050). The revision remove a section that says people who display foreign flags anywhere where they know they could cause a breach of the peace can be charged with a petty offense. That carries a fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail.
Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Northglenn, failed to convince senators to keep that section in. She said it would help protect the American flag from being subordinate to a foreign one.
“I’m just concerned that we want to protect our flag, the flag of the United States of America that many people right now are going through grave danger to protect,” Tochtrop said.
Williams said people can already be arrested for a breach of the peace for eight reasons, including disrupting a lawful assembly or disorderly conduct.
The measure must pass a second vote in the Senate before it can be sent back to the House, where members would decide whether to agree with the Senate changes.
