Bill Text: CT HB06457 | 2013 | General Assembly | Chaptered
Bill Title: An Act Concerning The Display Of The State Or National Flag At Half-staff And The Placement Of Flags On Cemetery Graves Prior To Memorial Day.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 23-7-1)
Status: (Passed) 2013-05-24 - Signed by the Governor [HB06457 Detail]
Download: Connecticut-2013-HB06457-Chaptered.html
AN ACT CONCERNING THE DISPLAY OF THE STATE OR NATIONAL FLAG AT HALF-STAFF AND THE PLACEMENT OF FLAGS ON CEMETERY GRAVES PRIOR TO MEMORIAL DAY.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 3-10f of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(a) [Whenever the Governor prescribes that the state flag be flown at half-staff for a period following the death in the line of duty of a member of the armed forces, the Governor shall also prescribe that the national flag be flown at half-staff for the same period. ] In the event of the death of a present or former principal figure of state government or of a member of the armed forces, as defined in section 27-103, who is from Connecticut and dies in the line of duty, the Governor may proclaim that the national flag be flown at half-staff. When such proclamation is issued, all state government buildings, offices, public schools and military bases shall fly the national flag and the state flag at half-staff.
(b) In the event of the death of a state official or prominent citizen, the Governor may proclaim that the state flag be flown at half-staff. When such proclamation is issued, all state government buildings, offices, public schools and military bases shall fly the state flag at half-staff.
Sec. 2. Section 19a-297 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2013):
The selectmen of towns, cemetery associations or ecclesiastical societies, having the care of cemeteries, may (1) enact bylaws providing for the care and management of all burial lots, and the protection of all shrubs, trees, fences and monuments thereon, provided no such bylaws shall (A) require or result in the removal or banishing of any undamaged United States flag or armed forces service marker, including flagholders provided by veterans organizations, from any grave site, or (B) restrict the placement of United States flags on the graves of veterans from the [Saturday] Friday before Memorial Day in each year until the Monday after the fourth of July, and (2) appoint superintendents and sextons for such cemeteries. Such superintendents and sextons shall have the exclusive right to direct the opening of graves, and no grave shall be opened in any cemetery except with the consent of the superintendent or sexton. Any person to whom such bylaws have been made known who violates the same shall be fined not more than ten dollars. The incorporators, organizers or members of any cemetery association or, if no incorporators, organizers or members are living, the owners of burial lots therein, by a majority vote, may, at any meeting called for that purpose, amend its articles of association or its bylaws.