BY CHELYEN DAVIS
RICHMOND
--With no opposition, a Virginia Senate committee yesterday approved Sen. Richard Stuart's bill to allow homeowners to fly the U.S. flag.The bill was prompted by a case in Henrico County last year, in which a homeowners association barred a 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient from flying the flag on an upright flagpole in his yard.
The association told retired Col. Van T. Barfoot that he could fly the flag from an angled pole attached to his house, but that the upright pole was an "aesthetic" problem.
Stuart, R-Westmoreland, said that made him angry. His bill would allow homeowners to "properly display" the flag according to federal rules. A homeowners association that wants to ban the flying of a flag would have to prove that it would create "substantial harm" to the community.
"What I've tried to do with this bill is strike a balance between the interests of the individual and his or her right to display a flag and the community itself," Stuart said. "It's my belief this should certainly be a fundamental right, to fly the flag of your country properly in accordance with the flag code."
The Senate General Laws Committee approved the bill unanimously, with no questions and no one stepping forward to speak against it. The bill now goes to the full Senate for debate, and then to the House of Delegates.
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com