American flag at half-staff
A mark of mourning. The flag is flown halfway down its pole after the death of a national or state leader, on Memorial Day morning, and when the President or a state governor orders it, under the US Flag Code.
How to read it
The Flag Code defines half-staff as the position “one-half the distance between the top and bottom of the staff”. Section 7(m) says that by order of the President the flag “shall be flown at half-staff” on the death of principal figures of the US government and of a state governor, and sets the periods: 30 days for a President or former President; 10 days for the Vice President, the Chief Justice or a retired Chief Justice, or the Speaker of the House; from death until burial for an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the Secretary of an executive or military department, a former Vice President or a governor; and the day of death and the day after for a Member of Congress. A governor may order it in their state for a present or former state official, a member of the armed forces from the state who dies on active duty, or a first responder who dies in the line of duty, and the Mayor of the District of Columbia has the same power there. The Code also says the flag is raised to the peak for an instant before it is lowered to half-staff, and raised to the peak again before it is lowered for the day. A flag folded into a triangle is the other mourning form, presented at military funerals.
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These explain what each flag display means under the US Flag Code, federal law and military regulations, and who defines it. The Flag Code is a guide for civilians with no penalty attached; this isn’t legal advice.
Days the Code sets
On Memorial Day the Code has the flag at half-staff until noon only, then raised to the top of the staff. It is also at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day, unless that day is also Armed Forces Day.
Who may order it
Section 7(m) carries the substance of Presidential Proclamation 3044 of March 1, 1954, the Congressional Research Service says. Presidents have also ordered the flag lowered for leading citizens the law doesn’t name; Martin Luther King Jr. is one of them. Governors gained the power to order it for first responders in 2018, so the CRS report of 2011 lists only state officials and members of the armed forces. The CRS adds that the half-staff rules, like the whole Code, are a guide, and don’t apply as a matter of law to private individuals and organizations lowering their own flags.
Read next
- Next in US flag variantsFolded American flagThe flag folded into a triangle, stars outward, as it is presented at a military funeral. The meanings often read for its 13 folds are a tradition with no official status: no federal law gives the folds a meaning.
- The same shape in North and Central American flagsFlag of Antigua and BarbudaAntigua and Barbuda’s flag is red with a V-shaped panel of black, blue and white stripes and a golden rising sun on the black. The government says the sun is the dawn of a new era, red the lifeblood of slave forefathers and the dynamism of the people, blue hope, black the soil and African heritage, and the V “victory at last”.
More US flag variants
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- 4 U.S. Code § 7 - Position and manner of display, 4 U.S.C. § 7(m), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, § 7(m)
- The United States Flag: Federal Law Relating to Display and Associated Questions, CRS Report RL30243 (John R. Luckey, February 7, 2011), Congressional Research Service (via EveryCRSReport.com), Flying the Flag at Half-Staff
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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