News

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 that the measure approved by a majority of voters in the city, which requires the city to fly the Earth flag above the national flag on city-owned flag poles on city property, directly conflicts with mandatory state law, and is therefore not enforceable.”

Measure M is believed to be the only initiative of its kind in the United States, not only in usurping established protocol but by enacting a local law as a symbolic gesture, in this case expressing the opinion that the well-being of the Earth needs to be prioritized.

Its passage also wedged Arcata, a general law city bound to adhere to California law, between state laws that direct the city to implement voter-approved initiatives and those that require the United States flag to be flown at the top of its flagpoles.

While the Arcata City Council approved raising the “Blue Marble” image of the Earth photographed from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 to the unprecedented position during a December 2022 closed session “to honor the important ballot initiative process and the will of our voters," the decision was made with the provision that the city would seek a "judicial resolution" on whether Measure M conflicted with state law.

Former Arcata Councilmember Dave Meserve, who led the Measure M campaign, didn’t oppose the move to pursue the court’s opinion to avoid potentially costly legal challenges against the city, with both sides presenting their positions on the matter in briefs and orally during a January hearing.

Meserve told the Journal on Thursday he is “of course, disappointed in the ruling” — while noting Canning issued a “very detailed decision.” He says he has asked the city council not to alter the Earth flag’s current status while he and proponents consider whether to appeal.

“I think that’s what we are going to do but it’s not set yet,” Meserve says, adding local attorney Eric Kirk, who has been representing the effort pro bono, has said he is willing to continue with the case.

Arcata City Manager Karen Diemer told the Journal in an email that the city council “will meet and discuss next steps based on the court ruling and the defendant’s intent to appeal in closed session," with advise from legal counsel, during one of  the board's remaining April meetings, either on April 16 or 17.

Meserve, who has emphasized that the Earth flag’s placement under Measure M has never been meant to disrespect the United States flag but to propel a conversation about the climate crisis and other threats to the global community, as well as the need to focus on the health and safety of the planet as a whole, says that goal has “always been the most important thing” and he believes that has been the result.

Still, Meserve says, he hopes the council “honors his request” not to move the Earth flag until a decision on whether to appeal Canning’s decision has been made and, if an appeal is filed, that process has run its course.