36 U.S.C. § 116
Section 116 · Memorial Day
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case 53 Cal. 3d 863 - Sands v. Morongo Unified School District (1991)
Most recently applied in William Books Michael Suetkamp v. City of Elkhart Indiana (December 2000)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Designation.—The last Monday in May is Memorial Day.
(b) Proclamation.—The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation—
(1) calling on the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day by praying, according to their individual religious faith, for permanent peace;
(2) designating a period of time on Memorial Day during which the people may unite in prayer for a permanent peace;
(3) calling on the people of the United States to unite in prayer at that time; and
(4) calling on the media to join in observing Memorial Day and the period of prayer.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 116 36:169g. May 11, 1950, ch. 182, 64 Stat. 158. In subsection (a), the designation is added, and the words “last Monday in May” are substituted for “May 30” in the Act of May 11, 1950 (ch. 182, 64 Stat. 158), because of section 1(b) of the Act of June 28, 1968 (Public Law 90–363, 82 Stat. 250).
In subsection (b)(4), the word “media” is substituted for “newspapers, radio stations, and all other mediums of information” to eliminate unnecessary words.