Every Flag-Print Koozie on the Strip Is Technically a Misdemeanor
Nevada law still makes it a misdemeanor to put any advertisement, design, or merchandise on the American flag — which would make half the souvenir shops on Las Vegas Boulevard crime scenes, if the First Amendment hadn't intervened.
In the early 1900s, a wave of "flag protection" statutes swept American legislatures, aimed less at protesters than at merchants — companies were printing advertisements directly onto flags, and patriotic groups were scandalized. Nevada's version, NRS 201.290, sweeps broadly: any person who "for exhibition or display, puts or causes to be placed any inscription, design, device, symbol, portrait, name, advertisement, words, character, marks or notice, or sets or places any goods, wares and merchandise whatever upon any flag or ensign of the United States, or state flag of this State" is guilty of a misdemeanor.
Read literally, that language convicts an astonishing share of American retail. A flag-print beer koozie is a "design... placed upon" a flag image. Flag towels, flag swim trunks, flag-wrapped Fourth of July advertising — the statute doesn't distinguish reverent use from crass use. It bans putting anything on the flag, including merchandise, for display. Every souvenir shop on the Strip stocks items that fit the statutory description.
The reason nobody is being arrested is the First Amendment. In Texas v. Johnson (1989) and United States v. Eichman (1990), the U.S. Supreme Court held that flag desecration laws cannot constitutionally be applied to expressive conduct, gutting statutes like this one nationwide. But the Nevada Legislature has never repealed NRS 201.290, so it survives as a perfect specimen of the dormant law: fully written, fully codified, and constitutionally forbidden from doing its job.
Current Penalty
Misdemeanor — up to 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Unenforceable as applied to expressive conduct after Texas v. Johnson (1989).
The Attorney's Take
Thomas Boley, Las Vegas Criminal Defense Attorney
“A statute can be on the books and still be unenforceable — and knowing the difference is literally my job. Supreme Court decisions like Texas v. Johnson neutralized this law, but the Legislature never erased it, and Nevada's code is full of provisions in that same twilight. When someone is charged, I don't just ask "what does the statute say?" — I ask "can the state constitutionally apply it here?" That second question has ended more than a few prosecutions.”
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Sources
Verified against the primary source: 2026-07-02