Commie California Declares Flying the American Flag an Impermissible Act of Public Expression…
Because being proud of America is a bad thing.
(Weekly Standard) — In the small town of Orcutt, California, a private association has raised donations to erect a flagpole and monument between a highway exit and a park-and-ride lot, at the entrance to the community’s Old Town section. The pole would hang the American flag, encircled by five pillars, one each for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), however, has stymied the effort, calling it an impermissible act of “public expression.”
The Orcutt Pioneer reports that, although the Old Town Orcutt Revitalization Association (OTORA) “intends its flag as a tribute and symbol of freedom” — which would seem to be how most Americans would view their nation’s flag — “CalTrans sees it as a form of speech or expression, something more personal than patriotic.”
OTORA, a typical Tocquevillean-style private civil association, has been fundraising for over a year to collect the necessary $60,000 to build the flagpole and monument, above which would wave a 12-by-18-foot iteration Stars and Stripes. But CalTrans has declared that its policy forbids such efforts. In a letter to OTORA, CalTrans explains that it developed its policy in response to a ruling released by a 3-judge panel of the notorious Ninth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, a ruling that was issued in response to impromptu flag-hanging in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The panel’s ruling demanded “viewpoint neutrality.” That is, if CalTrans was going to allow the hanging of the American flag on public land, then it must also allow the hanging of all flags — whether the British flag, the Nazi flag, or the Jolly Rogers — as well as “expressive banners” of all sorts. In its letter to OTORA, CalTrans writes,
To answer your question regarding the court’s decision in Brown v. California Department of Transportation pertaining to flying the American Flag in the State right of way, it was established that, “The display of the United States flag constituted expressive activity, within the meaning of the First Amendment.”
The concern that we have in this situation is that, whether a flag hanging on a bridge [not OTORA’s proposal], or a monument placed within a park and ride lot [the proposal], we would be placed in a position of having to permit all forms of expression as encroachments in the right of way if we were to allow yours. As such, the department has determined that the state highway system is not a forum for public expression except as expressly allowed.
Last summer, a few days before the Fourth of July, CalTrans painted over a 35-foot American flag mural on a hillside in the East Bay, several hours north of Orcutt, which had been completed in the wake of the terrorist attacks. CalTrans painted over the mural with gray paint. Even before the Fourth, a couple of industrious citizens painted it red, white, and blue again. After being heavily criticized, CalTrans apologized.
Posted by ZIP on Monday, May 9, 2011, at 9:31 pm | 
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No wonder I and millions of other sane Americans think California is worthless in their attitudes and actions. Waiting for the ‘Big One’ to hit and Las Vegas becomes beach front property.
Something tells me they would not mind in the stars and stripes was replaced with the Mexican flag.
I grew up in So Cal, and viewed the Liberal Backlash that infected my city. I never ever thought that California would sink to this level.
That’s why I will never step foot in California again.
Fuck them and all the liberals who have destroyed our country.
Honestly, it’s times like this when I wish America was the sort of country where the members of CalTrans and the Ninth Circuit Court would be visited in the middle of the night by a couple of very mean men from Langley, and no one would ever hear from them again.
….and surely the red, white, and green flag with the eagle devouring the
serpent will suffer the SAME fate here in the good old USA of Aztlan.
California is worse than a polish joke. Many years ago when California complained about all the illegal aliens, the feds did absolutely nothing. Why would they want to fly the flag?
Orcutt is a few miles from me, beleive me, there are a lot of people upset about this. BTW, flying a mexican flag around here is a no go.
Too many illegal Mexicans….
http://michellemalkin.com/2006/03/29/the-american-flag-comes-second/
http://www.outragedpatriots.com
It’s Kalifornication….what did you expect
fucking 9th court of appeals….I pray for their plane crash.
Good God, (shakes head).
Will the last American leaving Mexifornia please bring the flag?
probably per Boxer-she is a commie BITCH!
This is why McCain and Graham approving the latest Obama court picks is a travesty. They should also be lumped in with the Commies.
Can we just cut this “state” free of the US and let it drift out to sea?
I’m a Californian and we have a huge American Flag flying just 35 ft West of Interstate HWY 5, the flag can be seen for a couple of miles from any direction.
It is sad to see the state hwy transportation making such a decision when it comes to an American flag, they should be over ruled by the Governor on this.
The reasoning simply does not play, this is America and not Britain or Germany. The ruling once again reflects the weak and sick perversion of political correctness and multiculturalism that has been found to be a dismal failure in numerous EU Countries.
I will keep it simple to two words…That Sucks
Eileen
It is so tough being a conservative in CA. I am lost in a pool of liberalism. The only good news is when you get pissed and need to blow off steam, its easy to find a hippy to punch in the face. Always looking for the silver lining.
Ah, so it’s Mexifornia. Five bucks says if it was the Mexican flag, things would be different, right Libtards?
What Officer Pat says. I’m with him. I live in this cursed shithole called California. And I’m throwing up flags everywhere now. Everywhere.
Orcutt is about 10 miles from front gate of Vandenburg AFB.
A relative of mine lives in California and her son, who is very bright, is in a class of 50 other children. This is average apparently. Even the soviets took care to give their children a good education!!
You know, California, if you secede from the union, you’d never have to see another American flag ever again!
California (aka The People’s Gay Republic of Drugifornia) is enemy occupied territory. Short of using the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines to take it back by force, it’s a lost cause.
I am not much of a flag-waver; I am far more concerned with what it stands for than the flag itself.
However, I think this mess in Orcutt is a disgrace. As others have pointed out, I doubt there’d be an uproar if LaRaza or MALDEF or LULAC wanted to erect a pole for the Mexican flag, surrounded by monuments to Guatamala, El Salvador, etc.
Anyone care to lay odds on California’s legislature switching to Spanish by the year 2020?
http://www.dot.ca.gov/contactus.htm
Let’s all drop them a line and let them know what we really think, shall we?
wasn’t that kid who had a flag on his bike in Calif?
(and the school made him take it off?)
to keep the Mexican gangs from feeling slighted?
You know, CA King, I am not comfortable with the idea of California dropping into the sea. After all, they had a large part in giving us us Ronald Reagan.
However, they also gave us Pelosi, HRH Boxer, and re-elected Jerry (I turned a 6 billion dollar surplus into a 1 billion dollar deficit) Brown. The state is bankrupt, but they worry about Happy Meals and have banned black cars. Illegal immigrants are as vital to the state as slaves were to the plantation owners. Compared with most of the rest of the country, unemployment is higher. Want to discuss the cost of living?
Progressives make California the mess it is in today, and they keep right on marching to the abyss.
Couple of other things…your tax dollars (if you pay any) probably don’t go to conservatives. Most work for a living and believe in self-sufficiency.
Lastly, you have proven to be a minor troll. Your ‘civil war’ thing is lame, and you capitalized ‘King’ about yourself, but left America lower-case. We know your politics and logic without your having to waste another word.
california , the land of fruits nuts and commie ratr bastards
So in California, you can burn the flag, but you can’t fly it? Incredible! One more reason for me to never ever set foot in Californistan.
And once the “big one” hits, who the hell do they expect to come to their rescue? The stinkin’ Mexicans?
They do realize that they are technically still part of the USA, right???
Cut off federal funds to Caltrans – period.
@ CA King. How dare you criticize the taxpayers who are bailing your a$$ out. Your state is bankrupt because of your stupid policies. Why should the rest of us, who made better decisions have to bail you out? I’m sure there are some well-meaning people in CA who haven’t gotten out of there already because they don’t have the means to do so. I, as many others have commented will never, ever set foot in your state. We need a big wall to protect the rest of the country from becoming infected.
As for the 3-judge panel of the Ninth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, if they’re demanding a ruling that calls for “viewpoint neutrality” as it relates to the American flag, they need to be replaced. This is the flag of our country, the flag that represents to constitutional republic they are sworn to uphold. This is beyond “neutrality” and has nothing to do with the so-called rights of others to fly other flags. Seems to be that United States citizens are in their rights to build this monument if they so desire and it is not Caltran’s right as an entity to interfere. Get rid of judges who want to legistate from the bench. If they want to change the law, they should run for congress
This is unbelievable. How in the world has our country fallen to this place. Its shameful and so dishonoring to the men and women who have loved our country so much that they were and are willing to lay their lives down for our freedoms.
CA King…I hope you read the rest of the comments. Seems the majority thinks or should I say knows..that there is more negative and detrimental actions coming out of California than positive. Hey, but I am sure the beach is cool and I have read that Disneyland is fun.
Moral equivalence.
Once flag burning was protected as a form of expression this was inevitable.
Any use of the flag now becomes ” ‘a form of speech or expression, something more personal than patriotic.’ “
This whole thing is totally disgusting. I did live in Indio for a year in the early mid seventies and I met some really good people back then. I even did sound for Red Skelton and other stars while there. I don’t have any idea how people can let this kind of thing happen in MY America. The collapse of our government has happened because true Americans fell asleep at the wheel. Everyone knows that sleeping drivers cause terrible crashes. These days I would not even think of going back out to California for any reason, but this whole nation is FUBAR. I really believe that we are living in the last days of a once proud and talented nation. I am sick to my stomach of what people here have turned into. It is a world wide disgrace.
What a bunch of fruits!
What the people of Orcutt need to do is find out where every member of Caltrans live and set up protest in front of there houses until they change their desission