Judge’s Rules Arcata Can’t Put Earth Flag on Top
The Earth flag’s future at the top of three municipal flagpoles in Arcata is in question after a judge found this week that voters there “do not have the power to exempt” the city from following state laws mandating the U.S. flag fly above all others. Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning’s ruling on Measure M comes a year and a half after the citizen-led initiative directing the placement was approved in the November 2022 election with a final vote of 3,051 to 2,781, with around 52 percent having cast ballots in favor of putting the Earth flag on top. Canning noted the principle question under his consideration at the request of the city was whether Arcata voters could impose the change through the local ballot measure process. “There may be very strong policy reasons to fly the Earth flag above the national flag, as Measure M sets forth, but those policy reasons are insufficient to excuse the city from complying with mandatory state law on flying the national and state flags,” he wrote in the April 2 ruling. “The court finds and declares