It's time to stop half-staff flag abuse.
I've nothing in particular against Dolly Parton, but the decision to lower flags to half mast when she died prompted me to write about something that's been irking me for quite a while.
Flags are so frequently flying at half-staff nowadays that my reaction has been reduced to a guessing game, with all the impact of an emoji: I wonder who died now. If we lowered our flags every time someone we think important dies, they'd never be flying high and free.
There's nothing wrong with being sorrowful when people die, nor for honoring those to whom honor is due. But half-staff flag honors should be few and far-between. If everyone is special, no one is special. (This is not exactly what Dash said in the movie, The Incredibles, but it's what he meant, and how it's generally remembered.)
Curious about what the official flag rules are, I asked Claude; here is his response (specific citations removed for clarity).
The rules live in the U.S. Flag Code (specifically 4 U.S.C. § 7), and there's an important distinction to start with: it's the law for government buildings, but only etiquette — advisory, not enforceable — for private citizens. Government buildings must comply with proclamations, but homeowners are encouraged, not required, to follow half-staff orders. So nothing here is legally binding on you personally at home, though most people who care about flag etiquette follow it anyway.
Who can order it: the President, a state governor, or the mayor of the District of Columbia can order flags to fly at half-staff. A 2007 amendment also extended this: when a governor proclaims half-staff to honor a member of the Armed Forces who died on active duty, federal facilities within that state must follow the state's proclamation too — so a governor's order can now bind federal buildings, not just state ones.
Fixed durations set by law, upon death:
- President or former President: 30 days
- Vice President, Chief Justice (or retired Chief Justice), or Speaker of the House: 10 days
- Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a Cabinet secretary, a former Vice President, or a state/territory Governor: from day of death until interment (burial)
- Member of Congress: day of death and the following day only
Recurring annual observances, fixed by law regardless of proclamation:
- Memorial Day — half-staff until noon, then raised to full staff for the rest of the day
- Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15), Patriot Day (September 11), and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (December 7) — though if Peace Officers Memorial Day falls on the same day as Armed Forces Day, that exception is waived
Discretionary/other deaths: for other officials or foreign dignitaries, it's done according to presidential order or established custom, not a hard rule
The correct mechanical procedure, regardless of occasion: the flag should first be hoisted briskly to the very top of the staff for a moment, then lowered to the half-staff position — and at the end of the day, raised back to the peak briefly before being lowered entirely. Skipping straight to half-staff without that initial full hoist is a common mistake.
One clarifying note on terminology, since you may see both used interchangeably: "half-staff" refers to a flag on land (a flagpole), while "half-mast" technically refers to a ship's mast — the position is identical, just different vocabulary depending on where the pole is.
