If you're a Tea Partier, a fan of historic flags, or don't want to be treaded upon -- and you want the world to know -- but you happen to live in a neighborhood with a home owners association, fear not: Governor Jan Brewer to the rescue.
On Monday, Brewer signed a bill that prevents HOAs from prohibiting flags often associated with the Tea Party movement from being flown at homes in neighborhoods with HOAs.
The Gadsden Flag (pictured to the right), originally an early symbol of the United States Marine Corps and Navy, was adopted by the Tea Party about 18 months ago, and HOAs in Arizona have tried to prevent it from being flown in their neighborhoods.
Last year, a Laveen HOA tried to prevent one of its residents from
flying the flag in front of his house. Then the ACLU got involved and
said preventing people from flying flags is a violation of a person's
right to free speech.
"We believe that (HOAs) don't have the power to hijack people's free
speech rights," Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the
American Civil Liberties Union's Arizona chapter, told New Times last year.
See the entire story of the over-reaching HOA and the Gadsden Flag here.
Under the current law, flying of the U.S. flag,
the flags of any branch of the military, the state flag, the
POW-MIA flag, and the flag of any Indian nation cannot be prohibited by an HOA.
Starting this summer, the Gadsden Flag will be added to that list.
