Use of U.S. flag draws criticism

One candidate in next Tuesday’s primary is critical of the way another candidate is decorating her campaign yard signs, saying he thinks it violates federal rules for displaying the American flag.

Democrat Bob Caruso said he has concerns about improper use of the Stars and Stripes, and is repeating complaints he has heard from other veterans about the flags that adorn some of the yard signs for Debra Hayes.

“As a veteran, I’m somewhat sensitive” about the use of flags, he said. “Our country’s at war.”

Those concerns came as a surprise to Hayes, who says she’s heard nothing from Caruso, and nothing but good things – up to this point, anyway – about adding small flags to some of her signs.

“I’m just perplexed,” she said. “People have said this is a good time for us to be showing the flag.”

Hayes and Caruso aren’t running against each other in the Sept. 19 primary.

He’s running for county prosecutor in the Democratic primary, against Kootenai County deputy prosecutor Jim Reierson. She’s running in a five-way nonpartisan primary for District Court judge, although as a deputy prosecutor, Hayes currently works for Steve Tucker, the man Caruso hopes to beat in the Nov. 7 election, if he gets through the primary.

Hayes estimates she purchased about 100 flags this summer and added them to yard signs in various parts of the county. Some have been snapped off and stolen, and last weekend her campaign replaced as many as it could in anticipation of Monday’s anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Caruso believes Hayes is in violation of the federal flag code that calls for American flags not to be flown after dark if they aren’t lighted and to “never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.”

The flag code, Caruso readily admits, has no penalties attached. The statutes are advisory, although state law lists a few gross misdemeanors for improper use of a flag, which includes some language about flags on advertisements.

If he were to be elected as Spokane’s top prosecutor, Caruso said, he wouldn’t spend his time cracking down on flag infractions. But Hayes does work for his putative general election opponent, he noted, and if he were in Tucker’s job now, and Hayes were one of his deputies, “I would remind her about (the flag code) and say, ‘That’s pretty poor judgment.’ “

If Hayes disagreed, he added, “she’s welcome to leave.”

Caruso recently called The Spokesman-Review to raise questions about the Hayes flags, and later faxed sections of the U.S. Code covering flag displays, but insisted in a subsequent interview he was mainly passing along complaints he’d heard “from at least five veterans.”

“I don’t want to make a big deal about it. I’m not trying to get on her bad side,” he said.

Hayes said she hadn’t heard from Caruso, and wasn’t familiar with the sections of U.S. code he was citing.

“I will take a look at that statute,” she said. “I’ve heard of people burning flags – as disgusting as that is.”

The Supreme Court has overturned convictions for that, she said, but she doesn’t know what they’d say about flags on campaign signs.

Yes, the Supreme Court has upheld the right to burn a flag as free speech, said Caruso. Pornography is sometimes protected as free speech, but that doesn’t make it right, he added.