Bill to outlaw flag restrictions draws fire in committee

Thursday, Jan. 30, 1997 | 5:02 a.m.

Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, said his AB42 would prohibit restrictions that homeowners' associations have placed on mobile home parks, subdivisions and other communities.

Manendo sponsored a similar bill in the 1995 session. That measure passed the Assembly but stalled in a Senate committee. Likewise, a 1995 Senate bill prohibiting restrictions on flying the American flag passed the Senate but stalled in an Assembly committee.

"This is a freedom of speech bill," Manendo said.

But Assemblyman Pete Ernaut, R-Reno, said that people choose to live in neighborhoods with such restrictions for a reason.

"I don't understand this bill at all," Ernaut said. "You're saying that as a government we can overrule what a community decides, and that's exactly what we ought not to do. Peoples' decision to live under (these restrictions) is their choice."

Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno, said the Supreme Court had already prohibited city ordinances from controlling flag-flying and would likely rule the same way on the issue of individual neighborhoods.

"We have a responsibility to comply with the constitutional issues here. This is a basic right of expression," Hickey said. "I don't think this could stand up to a challenge."

Ernaut, however, insisted that private neighborhoods were different.

"What's next? My homeowner's association doesn't want me parking my car on the street?" Ernaut said. "It's a slippery slope as you start going down it. We start getting into the bizarre and absurd."

Assemblymen David Parks, D-Las Vegas, and Harry Mortenson, D-Las Vegas, questioned what types of flags were included. Mortenson pointed out that allowing all flags would include things like Nazi flags.

The questions prompted Assemblyman John Lee, D-Las Vegas, to ask if only the American flag could be included.

"Nothing brings a tear to my eye more than Americanism," Lee said. "If someone is a veteran or a patriot, they should have the right to put up a standard American flag."

But Ernaut said he doubted most homeowners' associations prohibited American flags.

"Before we go off on all that mush about mom and apple pie, I'd be extremely surprised if you could find five homeowners' associations in the state that restrict the flying of standard American flags," Ernaut said.

Ernaut also said that it was pretentious for legislators to consider only political signs.