Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., is pushing for a vote preventing homeowners? groups or community associations from banning displays of the American flag, and is hopeful that it will come up within the year.
In 2005, Bartlett introduced the “Freedom to Display the Flag Act,” a resolution that would bar condominium associations, cooperative associations or real estate management associations from creating restrictions on flagpoles to fit building or neighborhood standards.
The bill has stayed in the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity since mid-2005. But Bartlett has been engaged in bipartisan negotiations with congressional leaders to bring it to the floor soon, said the Republican?s press secretary, Lisa Wright.
Bartlett sponsored the bill after meeting a flag merchant who said some of his customers living in condominiums were prohibited from flying flags. Throughout the country, neighborhood associations have created restrictions on the size and placement of residents? flags.
In July 2005, The Examiner reported that Vietnam veteran Richard Oulton had been threatened with arrest or eviction for flying a flag in violation of his Glen Allen, Va., homeowners association covenant.
The state of Maryland already passed a similar bill in 2004; Bartlett?s resolution would extend the protection nationwide, Wright said. Meanwhile, lawsuits in Virginia, Florida and California between homeowners and associations have incurred hundreds of thousands in legal costs in the battle over the right to fly the flag.
