Bill Description: House Bill 561 provides additional clarity regarding what flags may be displayed by governmental entities and adds penalties for noncompliance.
Rating: +1
NOTE: House Bill 561 is a follow-up to House Bill 96 (2025). While the intent of House Bill 96 was clear, at least one city government chose to ignore it and even to designate a prohibited flag as an “official” municipal flag in order to skirt the law.
AMENDMENT NOTE: The House Amendment to the bill added a provision allowing governmental entities to display “the Basque autonomous community flag as recognized as an official flag by the Spanish government” and prohibiting them from displaying flags of “countries with which the United States is engaged in hostile action.” It also added a provision allowing governmental entities to display “flags, banners, or pennants displayed on government-owned flagpoles or streetlights or on any government property along streets or boulevards that are not political, religious, or ideological in nature.” This latter provision seems to largely negate the purpose of including a list of allowable flags in the statute. The bill's rating has not changed.
Does it promote the breakdown of the traditional family or the deconstruction of societal norms? Examples include promoting or incentivizing degeneracy, violating parental rights, and compromising the innocence of children. Conversely, does it protect or uphold the structure, tenets, and traditional values of Western society?
Flags can represent many things, including political and social causes. In recent years, some governmental entities have used flags associated with various identity groups and causes to push political and social agendas. It is reasonable and appropriate for the Legislature to prohibit such advocacy by government entities.
House Bill 561 would amend Section 67-2303A, Idaho Code, which deals with the proper protocol for flags flown by governmental entities.
The bill would clarify that the definition of “government entity” includes the “land owned and maintained by the governmental entity, including buildings, adjoining land, parks, roads, and boulevards.”
It would also add a provision that cities and counties may only display their own “official” flags if those flags were designated as such prior to January 1, 2023.
It would exclude flags of foreign nations with which the United States is engaged in hostile action.
It would permit the display of the official flag of an Idaho college or university only “if it has designated by official policy exactly one (1) official flag.”
It would also add a general exception for a “temporary parade or assembly on the property of a governmental entity.”
Most notably, the bill would add enforcement provisions, imposing a civil penalty of $2,000 per flag for each day such flag is displayed in violation of this law.
The Attorney General would have the duty to enforce the law. A governmental entity in violation would be given 10 days to comply. If it refuses, the Attorney General “shall have the authority to file a civil action in the district court of the county in which the governmental entity is located to enjoin the governmental entity from violating the provisions of this section and to recover civil penalties accruing from the first day of violation.”
The bill would take effect immediately upon passage and approval.
(+1)
