Proudly Fly the Flag Correctly
 A
recent Realty Times article offers instruction on how
to correctly display the American flag at your home.
The season for patriotism is here—Memorial
Day, summer barbeques, baseball, Independence Day—these
things all make Americans want to celebrate and display
their patriotism. In 2005, Congress passed the Freedom
to Fly The American Flag Act because some homeowner
associations (HOAs) enforced their covenants to prevent
homeowners from flying the stars and stripes. HOAs’
anti-flag display rules were often meant to prevent
homeowners from displaying decorative flags, whether
for Easter, Christmas or the arrival of fall. When they
began applying this to the U.S. flag, homeowners and
politicians got angry.
The new law emphasizes the right to
fly the star-spangled banner, and does single out “condominium
associations, “cooperative associations”
and “residential real estate management associations,”
saying they “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.” This means that your HOA cannot
prevent you from flying the U.S. flag beyond imposing
reasonable restrictions regarding the time, place or
manner of display necessary to protect the “general
interest for commonality in the community.”
The American Flag Act of 2005 also dictates
that flag-flying homeowners must follow the rules of
a seldom-enforced federal law that applies to patriotic
customs, United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10. If
you wish to display the American flag outside of your
home, you should be careful to follow these tenants:
• Only fly the flag outside from
sunrise to sunset, unless you illuminate it at night.
• If it rains or snows, you must use an all-weather
flag. You shouldn’t find this to be a problem,
as most flags produced for home use are all-weather
flags.
• Never fly another flag (such as a state flag
or even a decorative flag) above the U.S. flag. If the
other flag is on the same level as the U.S. flag, you
must never fly it to the right of the U.S. flag.
• The flag must be displayed with the “union”
(the blue area with white stars) at the peak of the
staff (unless the flag is at half-staff) when flying
the flag from a staff that projects horizontally or
at an angle from the window sill, balcony or front of
a building.
• When you hang the flag over a sidewalk using
a rope extended from the house to a pole at the edge
of the sidewalk, hoist the flag, union first, from the
house.
• When the flag is displayed over the middle of
the street, you should suspend it vertically with the
union to the north in an east and west street, to the
east in a north and south street.
• When the U.S. flag is displayed horizontally
or vertically against a wall or in a window, place the
union uppermost and to the flag’s own right, or
to the observer’s left.
• Never allow the flag to touch anything under
it, including, the ground, floor or other items.
• Never carry the flag flat or horizontally, but
always aloft and free.
• Never place anything on the flag, such as marks,
insignias, signs, words, pictures or drawings.
• If your flag becomes too tattered for flying,
it should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably
by burning it.
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