To salute the flag as a civilian, stand at attention, face the flag, and place your right hand flat over your heart with your fingers together. Hold that position through the Pledge of Allegiance, the national anthem, and any time the flag is being raised, lowered, or carried past you. Veterans and members of the Armed Forces who are out of uniform have a second option: they may render the traditional hand-to-brow military salute instead. And none of it is legally required. The rules in the U.S. Flag Code use the word “should,” not “shall,” and carry no penalty for civilians who follow them differently or not at all.
The Civilian Salute, Step by Step
Face the flag. Stand up straight. Place your right hand over your heart with the fingers together and the palm flat against the left side of your chest. Hold the position for the length of the ceremony, whether that’s the Pledge, the anthem, or a flag going up or down a pole. That is the complete gesture for most people in most situations.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 9 – Conduct During Hoisting, Lowering or Passing of Flag
Headwear adds one step. The Flag Code instructs men not in uniform to remove any non-religious head covering with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, so the hand still rests over the heart.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 4 – Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag; Manner of Delivery The anthem provision in Title 36 uses the same language.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 36 USC 301 – National Anthem The code says nothing about women’s hats, which most people read as leaving that choice open. Religious head coverings stay on for everyone.
The code doesn’t address physical limitations. If you can’t stand or can’t raise your hand, there is no rule covering your situation, and showing respect in whatever way you’re able is universally understood.
When to Salute
During the Pledge of Allegiance
Whenever the Pledge is recited, everyone present should face the flag and hold the hand-over-heart position from the first word through the last, indoors or outdoors.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 4 – Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag; Manner of Delivery
During the National Anthem
The anthem rules sit in a different part of the code, but the gesture is the same. Face the flag with your right hand over your heart from the first note to the last. If no flag is visible, face the music and act as though the flag were displayed in front of you.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 36 USC 301 – National Anthem Same posture whether you’re at a stadium, a school assembly, or a Fourth of July event.
When the Flag Is Raised, Lowered, or Carried Past
Any time you watch the flag go up or come down a pole, or see it pass by in a procession, the same civilian salute applies. In a parade, render the salute as the colors reach your position and hold it until the flag has passed.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 9 – Conduct During Hoisting, Lowering or Passing of Flag Foreign citizens present are expected to stand at attention but are not expected to place a hand over the heart.
Veterans and Military Members in Civilian Clothes
Until 2008, veterans and off-duty service members out of uniform followed the same civilian etiquette as everyone else. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 amended Title 4, Section 9 to let veterans and out-of-uniform military personnel render the traditional hand-to-brow military salute during flag raisings, lowerings, and passings of the colors.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 9 – Conduct During Hoisting, Lowering or Passing of Flag
That first change didn’t cover the anthem, which left an odd gap: a veteran could render a military salute as the flag went up a pole but had to switch to the hand-over-heart when the anthem played. The Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 closed the gap by extending the same military-salute option to anthem ceremonies.4Air Force District of Washington. Veterans, Military in Civilian Clothes May Salute During National Anthem
The choice between the military salute and the hand-over-heart is personal. Neither is more correct than the other. Uniformed service members don’t have that choice: branch regulations require the formal military salute whenever they’re in uniform during a flag ceremony or the anthem.
Is Any of This Required?
No. The provisions covering flag etiquette in Title 4 (Sections 4 through 10) carry no penalty for civilians who don’t follow them. Section 5 frames the code as guidance “established for the use of such civilians or civilian groups or organizations” not already bound by military regulations. “Should” appears throughout instead of “shall,” and Congress attached no enforcement mechanism. The rules describe custom and expected courtesy, not a legal duty.
The right to decline goes further than that. In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that public schools cannot compel students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance, overturning a 1940 decision that had allowed exactly that.5Justia. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette Justice Robert Jackson wrote for the majority: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” The Court added that the ruling wasn’t limited to religious objectors, noting that “many citizens who do not share these religious views hold such a compulsory rite to infringe constitutional liberty of the individual.”6Legal Information Institute. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
Schools and government bodies can lead the Pledge for willing participants, but they cannot discipline anyone who stays seated, remains silent, or otherwise declines. Federal courts have extended that protection to students who raise a fist in protest or engage in other quiet, non-disruptive expressions of dissent. One wrinkle worth knowing: a small number of states require students to get parental permission before opting out, and courts have upheld at least some of those parental-consent rules, so the practical scope of a student’s right to abstain can vary by state.