Town of Dighton Shares Massachusetts Attorney General’s Update on Flag Bylaw Approved by Town Meeting

Flag Bylaw Textual content Edited In Alignment With First Modification

DIGHTON — City Administrator Michael Mullen and City Clerk Mark Pacheco want to share the choice of the state Legal professional Common’s Workplace concerning Dighton’s Flag Bylaw authorised by residents at Dighton’s November 1, 2021, Particular City Assembly.

On the City of Dighton’s Particular City Assembly final November, Article 5, a citizen’s petition to restrict what’s flown on city flagpoles, was handed as a city bylaw. The town-approved bylaw was written as follows:

“No particular person shall fly or show a Commemorative or Organizational Flag apart from: a.) America flag; b.) The Massachusetts State flag; c.) The official City of Dighton flag; d.) The official flags of all branches of the U.S. navy and armed forces; and/or e.) The POW-MIA flag on a City flagpole or another such method situated on the City Corridor, or City-owned land or City-maintained amenities.”

As required by the state, the bylaw was then submitted to the Legal professional Common’s Workplace for it to be authorised or denied depending on whether or not the proposed amendments are in line with the structure and the legal guidelines of the Commonwealth.

In a choice shared with city officers on Might 27, the Legal professional Common’s Workplace authorised a part of the city meeting-adopted bylaw, however disallowed and eliminated a part of the textual content initially included within the bylaw, citing a battle with the primary modification to the structure and Article 16 of the Declaration of Rights of Massachusetts.

To view the choice in its entirety, click on right here.

Particularly, the Legal professional Common’s workplace deleted the textual content “or any such method” and, “or City-owned land or City maintained amenities” from the unique town-approved bylaw, however authorised underlying bylaw language referring to the flying of flags on a City flagpole situated at City Corridor.

“We thank the Legal professional Common’s Workplace for its diligence throughout the previous couple of months because it reviewed the bylaw authorised by the residents of Dighton eventually November’s Particular City Assembly,” City Administrator Mullen stated. “This determination gives readability consistent with latest court docket instances and gives a transparent path to start implementing the bylaw.”

The Legal professional Common-approved bylaw now reads as follows:

“No particular person shall fly or show a Commemorative or Organizational Flag apart from: a.) America flag; b.) The Massachusetts State flag; c.) The official City of Dighton flag; d.) The official flags of all branches of the U.S. navy and armed forces; and/or e.) The POW-MIA flag on a City flagpole situated on the City Corridor.”

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