Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005
A condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent a member of the association from displaying the flag of the United States on residential property within the association with respect to which such member has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use.
--------------------
So says this bill introduced in the United States House of Represenatives by Rep. Roscoe B. Bartlett of Maryland. It is currently in the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. Thanks to Fred Pilot for notifying me about this. The same bill was introduced last Congress under the number H.R. 5301 but it didn't get anywhere.
2 comments:
Note the exculpatory language to guarantee litigation:
(2) any reasonable restriction pertaining to the time, place, or manner of displaying the flag of the United States necessary to protect a substantial interest of the condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association.
Furthermore, guaranteed litigation over whether all Americans have freedom to express their patriotism in this way, where they have "a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use," is a guarantee of more exposés about HOAs.
This will have a negative impact on property values.
That's right.
HOAs deprive people of their inalienable rights, and the more people realize this, the more demand for HOA-restricted property will drop -- directly producing a negative influence on the values of the properties HOAs control.
The degree of the effect may be debated, but I don't think it can be persuasively argued that there is demand for oppression.
Of course, there will always be IPs that argue that beauty is more important than freedom, and that people 'agreed' to be restricted in ways they never knew they could be (because that is what they supposedly want).
However, you can have esthetics without HOAs.
Also, developments that look like people actually live in them can be seen as esthetically pleasing -- refreshing, even, to those that know what life is like in neighborhoods where an overzealous minority elevates their own perception of what looks nice over freedom (without thinking too much about the fact that this rigid order of priorities was put in place by a for-profit developer, and not the people themselves).
I don't think people value esthetics over freedom.
Developers do.
Post a Comment