Flag rules posted after courthouse controversy

It doesn't take much to ruffle a patriot's feathers. Just ask Carson City District Judge Michael Griffin.

Since the Public Safety Complex opened in early 1999, his office has fielded numerous complaints about the positioning of the American flag among three adjacent flagpoles on the courthouse steps.

Until now - he hopes.

Seeking to end the flurry of angry letters with instructions - and negative insinuations about the court's patriotism - Griffin took it upon himself to ask the Nevada National Guard to issue its "professional" opinion. Soon the official instructions for the flag's position will be framed and mounted on the wall above the court's security desk.

"Ever since we've been in the building, we've had this controversy about the way the flag goes," Griffin said.

"The most logical place to we thought to put the American flag was in the middle. Then we got a complaint; put it on the right. Then we had a guy come back and say put it in the middle."

And the controversy continued.

By the right side, Griffin said, did the complainants mean the right as it appears facing toward the building, or facing from the building toward the court's parking lot?

"To stop all this we asked the (Nevada) Adjutant General to put us in touch with the information about the protocol. The military has proper protocol for everything."

Finally Griffin and the courthouse security officers received the confirmation they needed.

According to Title 4, Section 7 of the United States Code provided by the Nevada Army National Guard Office, "if all flags are displayed from staffs of the same height (i.e. the courthouse), the flag of the United States is always placed in the position of honor, to the right of the other flags (to the left of the observer). In other words, the U.S. flag will be to the observer's left if the observer is looking at the flag facing the courthouse with the observer's back to the street."

"There is all sorts of concern about the flag, and we appreciate that," Griffin said. "We want people to know we are flying it according to the rules."