Flag Day in the United States is really a holiday of honor and national pride, each day to figuratively” rally round the flag.” Flag Day have their origins in the Second Continental Congress. On June 14, 1777, the Congress adopted a flag design, specified as “That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate white and red; the union be thirteen stars, white in the blue field, representing a brand new Constellation.”

The first utilization of this design ended up being to work as the flag carried into battle (the newest War was still being well under way). The flag was initially carried inside the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. Over these start of the United States flag, it was displayed on naval ships and in the end became accepted and honored through the new U . s . citizens through foreign nationals as well. In 1778 Captain Paul Jones commanded the naval warship “the Ranger” on what the flag was placed. Upon arriving in the French port, the crew of the French naval ships saluted the flag.

north america is credited to Betsy Ross, possesses the familiar circle variety of the 13 stars – for your original 13 colonies. Eventually because country grew, the number of stars needed to grow at the same time. The subsequent version had 15 stars, as Vermont and Kentucky joined the Union. This new flag occurred in 1795. The flag had numerous iterations as new states were put into the country. However an issue was brewing over how the flag was being misused.

Before 1897 a number of opportunists took the nationalistic feelings drilled into the flag’s image as avenues to advertise their wares or political views. The flag had become the backdrop to advertising or another questionable purposes. For example a marketer could post an add on a flag and wave it around inside a crowd.

An effort was developed to get federal legislation passed that will ban desecration from the flag. After failing in the federal level, Illinois, South Dakota, and Pennsylvania released state laws in 1897 that got illegal to position just about any markings on the flag, to utilize the flag in any sort of marketing, or to mutilate, trample, deface, or defile the flag.

It had not been until 1968 that flag desecration became federal law. A flag was burned in Nyc City’s Central Park to protest the Vietnam War. Congress then passed a whole new law rendering it illegal to knowingly cast contempt upon any flag of the us by “publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling upon it.”

This law has become challenged many times since. In the centre with the concern is choosing the balance between flag desecration and freedom of speech rights. Within a 1972 decision, the final Court held that Massachusetts couldn’t prosecute a person who wore a flag about the seat of his pants. In 1974 the final Court decided that freedom of speech overrode flag desecration within a case involving somebody who affixed a peace sign in the flag in protest of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

Perhaps the thorniest issue of contemporary times is the technique words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. In 2002 a Ninth Circuit Federal appeals court decided that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional due to line “one nation, under God.” In 2004, however, the final Court declined to hear the same case, thereby leaving the inclusion of “under God” intact inside the Pledge of Allegiance for many of the us.

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