Gov. Kay Ivey announced Monday that flags at the Alabama State Capitol and all other state buildings will be at full-staff for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. The University of Alabama may have to raise its flags in compliance with this order.
Currently, flags across the country, including those at the University, are flying at half-staff in mourning of the death of former President Jimmy Carter.
“Flags at state buildings in Alabama should be raised to full staff on Monday, January 20, 2025, to honor the inauguration of the new president,” Ivey said in the memo announcing the decision.
Ivey is not alone in her decision. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Gavin Newsome of California both issued their own proclamations raising flags in their states. Days after Ivey’s announcement, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that flags at the nation’s capitol in Washington will be flying full-staff during the inauguration ceremony.
Ivey is a firm Trump ally and recently met with the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
On his platform TruthSocial, Trump said, “The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration.”
He also incorrectly claimed that the American flag had never been lowered for another president’s inauguration. Flags were at half-staff during Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1973 after the death of former president Harry S. Truman.
Raising flags for the inauguration could be seen as a breach of a long-held mourning tradition dating back to 17th-century sailors. The first documented instance of half-staff ritual was in 1612, when flags were flown at half-mast by the crew of English explorer John Hall after he died in a spear attack.
The modern U.S. Flag Code was adopted by Congress in 1942 after widespread protest by Civil War veterans over use of the symbol in advertising. It contains regulations for how the flag should be displayed and enshrines the 30-day mourning period for presidential deaths.
Ivey and Abbott cited 4 U.S.C. § 6 in the flag code as precedent for flying the flag at full staff in spite of presidential orders. The section, titled “Time and occasions for display” lists a series of days on which the U.S. flag should “especially” be displayed, including other January holidays like New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This section does not include any wording to suggest that flags must be flown on full-staff on any of those highlighted days. Flags flew at half-staff on New Year’s Day this year in Alabama.
It remains unclear whether the University will lower its flags in accordance with Ivey’s order. The Office of Strategic Communications has not responded to questions about UA flag protocol.
