Cuomo Signs Bill Banning Sale Of Confederate, Nazi Flags

NEW YORK— Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Tuesday banning the sale of so-called hate symbols such as Confederate flags and neo-Nazi swastikas on state land. The bill is effective immediately, though Cuomo cautioned the law may need refining to escape First Amendment free speech challenges.

"This country faces a pervasive, growing attitude of intolerance and hate — what I have referred to in the body politic as an American cancer. By limiting the display and sale of the confederate flag, Nazi swastika and other symbols of hatred from being displayed or sold on state property, including the state fairgrounds, this will help safeguard New Yorkers from the fear-installing effects of these abhorrent symbols," Cuomo penned in the bill's approval.

The public grounds designation would affect state fairs. Because the Supreme Court has previously ruled in favor of vendors exercising First Amendment rights at state fairs, there will be an amendment specifically limiting the ban at the New York State Fair.

Exceptions to the general display ban include if "the image appears in a book, digital medium, museum or serves an educational or historical purpose."

The bill was sponsored by New York City Democrats Alessandra Biaggi and Rodneyse Bichotte.

The bill defines the term "symbol of hate" as "symbols of white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology or the Battle Flag of the Confederacy."

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, although the Confederate flag is viewed by many white Southerners as an emblem of their heritage and regional pride despite its association with slavery, Jim Crow and the violent resistance to the civil rights movement in the 1950s, multiple organizations define the flag as a hate symbol, including: the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP and some school districts across the country.