A look at some of the obsolete state laws that live on:

• Many were written many decades ago to bar commercial use of the American flag and include language that, if enforced, would make it illegal in some estates to include a flag in things like advertising. But during the 1960s and ’70s, some of those laws were used to jail protesters who burned flags as part of demonstrations.

• Most include provisions also intended to protect state flags, though Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi protect the Confederate flag.

• Only Alaska, Wisconsin and Wyoming have no flag-desecration laws. Wisconsin’s was struck down by the state Supreme Court in the 1990s.

and removed.

A handful of other states have modified their laws to remove portions of flag laws while leaving others in place; in some cases, the law doesn’t include the American flag but maintains state-flag protections.

— A timeline of key dates in flag-desecration law: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/more/desecration.htm

Sources: The First Amendment Center, Independence Hall Association and Associated Press research