Californian Identity Archives - Independent California Institute

Connecting California: On July 4, Californians should pull down our American flags

ICI June 15, 2025

Joe Mathews: C.C. Marin, director of the Independent California Institute, encourages challenges to the custom of American flag supremacy, and urges us just to fly the California flag instead.

“California’s state flag is a powerful symbol of resistance and unity in the face of a cruel, lawless presidential administration,” Marin wrote recently. “Flags remind us who’s in charge. California is not and has never been a subsidiary of the federal government. … Voluntarily flying our own flag below the American flag is literally a symbol of inferiority and compliance.”

Do California cities have to fly the American flag?

C.C. Marin May 27, 2025

California’s state flag is a powerful symbol of resistance and unity in the face of a cruel, lawless presidential administration. Across California, people are taking down their American flags and flying the California flag instead.

What if Californians want our elected local governments to do the same thing? Is that legal? And if not, what else can we do?

There are at least four big opportunities for pro-independence activists to organize locally around how California governments fly flags. But first, we need to know the law inside and out.