N.Y. General Business Law § 136: Exhibition or display of the flag

§ 136. Exhibition or display of the flag. 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.