Legislation aimed at protecting the right to fly the U.S. flag is headed for the governor’s desk.
Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter announced in December that he would submit a bill requiring homeowners associations to allow combat veterans decorated for valor to fly Old Glory in any manner permitted by federal law.
The measure developed into one that allows any homeowner governed by an association to hoist the American flag and display it according to the U.S. Flag Code.
However, under the bill, the association would have the right to create “reasonable restrictions” for flag display if it deemed it necessary to “protect a substantial interest” of the group.
And if an association said a banner-flying property owner broke a rule, that person would have the right to use as a defense the notion that the regulation doesn’t protect a “substantial interest.”
The bill was unanimously approved by the House of Delegates on Feb. 11 and by the state Senate on Monday.
Lingamfelter, a Woodbridge Republican, was inspired to introduce the legislation by the case of a Medal of Honor recipient outside of Richmond.
Van T. Barfoot, like Lingamfelter a retired Army colonel, was initially told last year by his homeowners association that he couldn’t display the flag on a vertical pole in front of his house in Henrico County.
Lingamfelter was pleased to accomplish his goal of submitting a bill that both protected homeowners’ rights and was fair to property owners associations.
“We did what we said we were going to do,” he said Monday evening.
Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.
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