(kostia)
A Nebraska landlord told a tenant the American flag she’s hanging outside her window has to come down, but she’s not budging.
KETV of Omaha reports the woman, whose husband is in the Navy, is keeping the flag up until the Red coats come to tear it down. But she doesn’t seem to have any legal ground to stand on because she signed an agreement that said she wouldn’t hang posters, pictures or flags in the windows.
Do you think the woman should get an exception for what appears to be an innocuous display of patriotism?
Apartment Complex Says No To Show Of Patriotism [KETV Omaha]
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She needs to get creative and have blinds made that look like a flag when they are closed.
problem solved!
Not really. I’ve never been in an apartment where you can a) change the blinds or b) have additional window coverings behind them that aren’t white to the outside or c) have things in front of the blinds.
The landlord has the right to set the conditions of occupancy. The rentee should take the flag down.
On the other hand, the landlord is looking at a world of hurt in the court of public opinion. Seems to me that this might be one of those circumstances where the landlord might wave a rule.
No. She signed the contract saying she wouldn’t hang posters, pictures or flags. I don’t know what it is with the people in the stories (or maybe just the consumerist) that thing that even though they signed a contract saying they could/couldn’t do something, they have the right to just break it. From Being late on a mortgage payment to displaying a flag, if you sign a contract and it isn’t expired then you have to abide by it, or leave. Very simple, doesn’t really need the opinion of a mass amount of people.
Who said anything about breaking it. There are rules in the agreement and there are remedies the LL can pursue if those rules are broken. Also, she has every right to shame the landlord. Why do you hate America and the 1st amendment?
Tenants do not have any real power in negotiating these kinds of clauses out of leases. I know when I’ve read these clauses, it never occurs to me that there is a particular infringement upon a right that I might want to have in the future. You just tend to gloss over everything to make sure that the money is right. I’m somewhat sympathetic to this woman, not because I think there should be any particular exception made for a flag, but because what she is doing is probably not harming anyone, and I object to overly restrictive lease prohibitions.
I suppose an apartment complex might not look so nice if everyone hung various and sundry flags and posters in their windows, but it might suit public opinion and free speech a little better to help tenants express themselves in a more upscale way, rather than restrict heartfelt speech altogether.
I thought Bush singed some law years ago that no one can restrict the display of an American flag including an HOA.
That was a 2005 law but it only stated homeowners cannot be prohibited from displaying a flag. It did not mention renters.
Rules are rules. There is no reason why rules should not apply to her.
You mean the 1st amendment rule? What’s the problem here? There’s an agreement the LL is interpreting one way and she is interpreting another. If he feels so strongly that his interpretation is correct then he should commence legal proceedings.
Why do you hate her, America, soldiers and the 1st amendment?? You seem to be targeting her for exercising her 1st amendment right to shame the LL.
Is this satire? My snark meter is off.
Otherwise, I’m guessing you’re a graduate of the Sarah Palin School of Constitutional Studies.
I’m hoping you’re joking. I can’t tell at the moment.
The first amendment prohibits congress from abridging free speech, and the fourteenth amendment does the same for states. This is a dispute between two private individuals, so neither amendment applies.
He’s a notorious idiot.
The content of the flag is irrelevant. Whether the flag be American or a favorite sports team. She already made a prior agreement not to fly a flag so this is pretty cut and dry if you ask me. If she is truly patriotic she should honor the contract she signed.
Is there not a Federal law against banning the display of the American flag?
No.
Excuse me,,,,did she read the lease? If not……to bad!
Nope! We live in a free country, and similarly are free to contract as we please. She signed a contract to not hang a flag, and she’s still free to hang it, but the landlord is also within her legal rights to kick the woman out.
It would be much simpler for her to get some nice American flag curtains. It may be tacky but she would be in compliance.
I’m torn on this one, but when I’m torn I have to come down on the side of free market.
If the landlord does not allow flags, time to look at new apartments when your lease is up.
The law should side with the landlord in this case, unless congress wants to make it nationwide that anyone has the right to show their patriotism by displaying the flag in their home/car window. Personally I think they should make it so; I mean, we are at war, and a visual show of support for our troops is the least we can do – we should all be doing much much more of course.
Do the other tenants have curtains? Why doesn’t she just hang two flags from a curtain rod to cover the window completely), open the blinds all the way and display her “patriotism” that way?
It is the American flag, yes it gets an exception, always.
What is it with folks who think a contract is some kind of magic spell that must be obeyed? A contract is civil law, anything in a contract can be challenged. Also, just because something is in a contract does not make it right or legal.
I’m a Navy vet, I say let her flay her flag (and yes it is displayed correctly). If they (management) keep giving her grief over it, spread the word and let em take her to court.
People like it when contracts are followed because it gives them,confidence to do business in the world. Why would I contract for things if people could just willy billy break it for reasons important to only them without consequence?
She is welcome to fly her flag against her promise not to do so. She just needs to take responsibility and accept the consequences of her broken promise, which can include eviction and damages. She can dislike it and rail against it all she likes. She will still lose under the law. Maybe the court of public opinion will send her donations to move somewhere else where she can make promises more to her liking.
But legally it doesn’t get an “exception, always”.
Anything in a contract can be challenged, yes, but that has to occur BEFORE the lessee signs the contract.
Thank you for your service, though.
Not to be a meanie, but this woman signed a rental agreement. Is she able to purchase an apartment approved flag holder and affix it to her door? I think the landlord is just against the flag being in the window, not the flag itself.
Easily solved, make a rectangular plaster cast, paint the stars and stripes on it then put it in the window. It would be a sculpture, the lease did not say anything about a sculpture. Everyone happy. Landlords mistake in not saying nothing could be hung in the windows.
Does anyone have a problem with this woman exercising her 1st Amendment rights? Is there something wrong with this woman publicly shaming the LL utilizing said 1st Amendment rights??
If you said “yes” to the above questions then simply ask yourself “why do you hate America?”!!!
The landlord hasn’t proven that the rental agreement prohibits flags in the window, he is only interpreting the language in a manner that conveys his hatred of the USA. If she concedes and takes the flag down I can only surmise it was because of threats from the LL’s liar, er lawyer, about entangling the poor woman in a protracted and expensive legal fight. Yay for corporations!!!
OK- this is the 2nd posting on this, so I’m not sure its not snark. I know you think Glen Beck and Sarah Palin are infallible, but trust me, they’re wrong here. A few comments:
1) You see, if you actually read that 1st Amendment that you love to reference, it says that the GOVERNMENT (Congress to be specific) can’t abridge your free speech rights. This is not the government, this is two private individuals in a civil matter. And no, having a judge enforce the contract doesn’t make it a 1st Amendment issue. Now she may refuse to honor that judicial order, but then she’ll be liabile for damages and eviction.
2) Just because this guy doesn’t want flags in the windows of his apartment buildings, doesn’t make him less patriotic or hate America. Stay with me here- putting a magnetic yellow ribbon on your giant SUV, doesn’t make you patriotic. Helping your fellow man, standing up everyone’s rights (even the ones you don’t agree with, like here), treating people with dignity and respect, etc. is patriotic.
3) you know that wearing clothing with the flag on it is against the flag code, correct? So when you wear a shirt with the American flag to your Tea Party rallies, you’re violating the flag code, and in your little world, hate America.
§176. Respect for flag
No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
(b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
(c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
(e) The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
(f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
(h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
My replies below:
Prelude: beck and palin….the best thing about them ran down their mother’s leg! Hey Ooooooooooooh!
1) I think you missed my point. I’m not saying she has a 1st amendment right to display the flag and the LL is infringing on her right (most people understand it’s the gov’t that shouldn’t be able to control speech), I’m saying, stay with me here, she has a 1st amendment right to speak about the LL’s actions to the media and, in turn, publicly shame the LL into allowing her to keep the flag.
2) The guy could have turned a blind eye…if he loved America. I tried to stay with you but your breadth of discussion lost me.
3) I really don’t care about the flag code (except for the “touching the ground” thing, but that’s more a result of my position as “Flag Boy” in elementary school and my mild OCD, but i digress). It’s a piece of cloth with a beautiful design that’s made in china using child labor and unfair trade practices.
And it’s getting to be regoddamndiculous when a worthless congress attempts to legislate the ability to burn a flag….when that the PROPER FUCKING WAY TO DISPOSE OF A FLAG, per the flag code!!!!
The woman is being denigrated simply for exercising her free speech rights.
I don’t think anyone is making the point that this woman shouldn’t be able to voice her opinion or share her story, so you’re a little misguided there.
The same way that she’s able to tell her story, the commenters on this site are able to say that she is incorrect in her interpretation of her lease.
And “shaming” her landlord is a pretty abhorrent way to conduct oneself. It’s of course protected for her to be able to do that, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
Poo. No one is allowed to put ANYTHING in the windows and she’s trying to break the rule. The fact that it is a flag is irrelevant. If it were a poster of an LOLcat, she probably wouldn’t be gathering much support because people don’t lose their everloving minds over LOLcats the way they do over the stupid flag.
Which, even though I’m American born and bred, I think is ugly.
Your extreme example and gross generalization of “If you believe X, you hate America” really invalidates any point you’re trying to make. It just makes you sound like a loony.
“If you said “yes” to the above questions then simply ask yourself “why do you hate America?”!!!”
I hate America because people like yourself who have never read the constitution fill it.
Should the woman get an exception from Contract Law because she doesn’t feel like following it any more? No.
Looks to me like she’s being an idiot. The tenant could have gone to the landlord and politely asked for an exception to her rental agreement and there’s a good chance the landlord would have considered that a reasonable request if she proposed a tasteful way of displaying it (say by installing a mount for the flag outside her window at her own expense). However she decided to put a flag up in a way that was against her rental agreement, that isn’t in good taste by using it practically as a curtain, and by not even asking her landlord first. I don’t have much sympathy for her.
I agree with you, Pax. I didn’t see anywhere in there that it applied to anyone other than associations (i.e., multiple-owner dwellings). I think ParingKnife may have limited his reading to the summary, and that part confused his understanding.
Leasing Agreement … Portion of society called “Renters”.
The problem with all of this is that if *all* (or the overwhelming majority) of the leasing agreements have the same restrictions, then you are basically *forcing* all of those restrictions onto a “class” in society.
So now you have crossed over from the rights of a property owner to the rights of a societal class. Especially considering the “property owner” is a business venture and not your primary residence.
So yes, this family signed a lease, but whether those leasing terms, in aggregate, are entirely enforceable or border on class discrimination is up for the lawmakers and judicial system to work out.
So yea, it’s not a clear cut as “they signed a lease and the fine print states X,Y and Z”.
Renters is not a protected class.
If she refuses to abide by the terms of her lease, she should be evicted. I assume she will have to “budge” — when an unlawful detainer suit is filed, and a Sheriff arrives to bodily remove her.
FTR – the photo shows a flag on the inside of the window.
If she signed an agreement then she has to follow it or risk eviction and there’s nothing she or an attorney could do about it.
No. Take down the damn flag! If it were an Israeli Flag or Tibetan Prayer flags every white person this side of the Mississippi would tell her to stop. The issue isn’t her patriotism or the building owner’s lack of it but rather him trying to keep EVERYONE from putting whatever they want. What goes on for one, goes on for all, or it doesn’t go on.
I was under the assumption that there could be know law that restricted the display of the American flag…
“no”, not “know”
Wow is all I can say.
The landlord is right, she signed a contract and is now trying to tug at emotional heart strings to get her way. I’m all about flying the flag, but a contract is a contract and my personal convictions tell me to honour that when I’m playing by someone else’s rules.
No, she shouldn’t be allowed an exception. This isn’t about patriotism; it’s about the landlord trying to keep the place from looking like crap with a hodgepodge of junk in the windows. When you drive by a place like that, it looks awful. That turns away potential renters.
She signed the agreement so no flag. If she wants to hang one up, let her put it on the wall in her living room.
No exception. She signed a binding legal agreement, now she’s not honoring her word. She needs to take the flag down.
I wear my patriotism in my heart, not my window. I give back to my community and make a point to thank soldiers for serving their country. hanging a flag outside my window is tacky, except on flag day or the 4th.
It’s not a First Amendment issue because it’s not government action. The Freedom to Display the Flag Act doesn’t apply because by its terms, it applies only to residential real estate where the persons desiring to display the flag have some ownership interest. That is, condo, co-op, HOA, etc. The OP is a tenant and the landlord has the right to set the rules for his own property. A tenant can accept those rules (sign a lease) or live elsewhere.
All that said, I think it does no one harm (yes, I do understand contract) to let the woman hang the flag inside the building, in her window. Her husband is in the Navy, apparently not based in Nebraska because there aren’t too many blue water vessels available in Nebraska. And I’m sure she is viewing her hanging the flag as a gesture of support,
There was a recent case where a veteran was challenged by a municipality on the size of his flag. It was larger than the municipal code permitted. He won. Not on point, but useful.
As a compromise, she could hang the flag from the ceiling, back inside from the window, but visible from outside when she opens here blinds, curtains, whatever. She would be in compliance because nothing was hanging in the window but she’d accomplish her goal at the loss of a little bit of space.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, but what she can do is to start a petition from the other tenants to allow just the American flag to be displayed. It would have to be no bigger than a certain size and enough tenants would have to agree to it before the landlord would consider it.
I live in an apartment complex that has the same rules. I wouldn’t mind it if they allowed flags of the country the tenants are citizens of. I think it would make it more interesting to see different national flags.
There was a similar issue with a landlord tenant in Oshkosh, WI. The landlord had the policy in effect with good intentions but modified it after all the bad press that they had received. The new policy allows for patriotic flags, but would disallow any decorative flags.
So about the pic accompanying this post…
The red stripes are pepperoni, the white stripes are mozzarella, the blue is mozzarella covered in food coloring, and the stars were made by a cookie cutter from slices of cheese ? Does that sound right?
There is no question that the agreement that she was coersed into signing is a violation of her Constitional rights, specifically under the 1st Amendment, therefore it is invalid and her flag can and should indeed fly high! PS What a douchebag anti-American that landlord is.
Wrong.
1) “coersed”? There’s no mention that she did or didn’t willfully sign her lease to live in her apartment. I think suggesting she was “coersed” is irresponsible and unfounded.
2) The first amendment (which I encourage you to go read) specifically prohibits congress from creating laws that abridge free speech, and the fourteenth amendment has the same effect for states. The landlord is a private individual, and the renter signed a lease that does not allow anything (American flags or otherwise) to be hung in the window. Since neither Congress or her state are the ones saying she can’t fly the flag, this is not an issue of constitutionality. The renter would have had the chance to read the lease before signing it, and if she wanted to challenge that part of the lease she would have needed to do so before signing.
3) It’s a good exercise to sometimes look at things from multiple perspectives. What you see is a landlord saying a renter can’t fly an American flag, which of course makes the landlord look un-American. What someone else may see is that the renter is deliberately contradicting a contract that she signed and putting herself above established contract law, while the landlord is defending his right to manage the property he owns as he sees fit.
Your claim that the landlord is “un-American” is a bit of tunnel-vision and selective reasoning.
You can probably tell that I side with the landlord. I’d love to see an American flag flying anywhere, but not at the cost of the laws our founding fathers fought so hard to establish.
Her name is “lawgirl.” Therefore, your comment coerces the violation of her first amendment rights, for our children. You should plead the fifth amendment before she gets all de jure on you or something.
This is me being confused.
Why do you call yourself “lawgirl” if you don’t understand how “laws” work? You’ve never gotten a JD, you’re not a law student, I’m sure you may not even have a degree.
I understand–and agree with–the landlords point of view.
The Armenians in my building, however, would strongly disagree. Those guys LOVE flying the ol’ Stars and Stripes.
How bout curtains? Are those allowed? How about a nice set of American flag curtains?
Not surprised by the hostility of the posters here towards this woman.
“you don’t stand for the individual’s right to exercise her 1st amendment by bringing attention to this story??!?!?!?”
I stand for the right of an individual being an ignorant bitch, sure. I can also call her such!
Let’s fix this. Put up blinds that when they are closed, have a print of an American Flag on them. Then you aren’t breaking the rules. You get your patriotism, you don’t break the rules, and nobody will ever hear about this again.
Not a chance. She signed the agreement and it isn’t her property. End of story.
I completely agree she needs to honor her rental agreement.
That having been said, why do landlords put this specific clause in a rental agreement? My wife is Brazilian, and when I put a Brazilian flag in (the inside of) my window for the span of one game during the World Cup, the reaction I got was equal to if I had gone on an armed rampage.
Is the landlord concerned with prospective renters being turned off by the flags? “Hmmm… I wanted to live here, but… this place is just too patriotic. I just don’t love America this much, sorry.”
If the issue is that someone may hang a profane or offensive flag, why not put a clause in the rental agreement that says the landlord can tell you to take one down for any reason? That way, an American flag might be able to stay, while your neighbor’s Nazi flag could be removed. And you can’t sue, because you agreed that it is the discretion of the landlord.
“Sue if you must this Cornhusker head, but spare my country’s flag,” she said.
Of course not, she signed something. It doesn’t matter if she thinks it’s a stupid rule, that’s not how contracts work. It really doesn’t matter if she wants to hang up a picture of a kitten or the antichrist, a deal’s a deal.
A true patriot would respect the rule of law and her own word, and keep to the rental agreement, or move out if she finds it that offensive.
How many times do we have to go through this?
A person can display the flag any time they want. Period. Landlords loose this battle every time.
“How many times do we have to go through this?
A person can display the flag any time they want. Period. Landlords loose this battle every time.”
In the cases you make up, sure.
While there should be no exception here, the answer to me seem simple. If the blinds are allowed then get creative. Make the blinds a flag by coloring the slats of the blinds red, white, and blue. Use star stickers on the blue slats to finish your fake, legally compliant flag…