Federal Way council agrees to draft revised flag policy, will send proposal to committee for review

Federal Way — The Federal Way City Council on Tuesday discussed whether and how the city should fly community and commemorative flags, with members agreeing by consensus to send a draft policy to a council committee for development and later review by city commissions.

City Attorney Ryan Culler opened with a legal overview, telling councilors that the Supreme Court has made clear a municipality that claims "government speech" must adopt a written policy and apply it uniformly. "You need to have a written policy ahead of time and apply it equally if you're going to call it government speech," Culler said, warning that open-ended or highly subjective criteria increase First Amendment risk.

Culler summarized the city's current approach as narrow: the policy permits the U.S. flag, the Washington state flag, a…