Louisiana Voids HOA and Landlord Bans on the U.S. Flag

The rule lives at R.S. 9:1114, among the Civil Code ancillaries on immovables, rather than inside any one association statute. That placement matters: the section names planned communities, condominium associations, and lessors together, so the same protection reaches a subdivision governed by the Louisiana Planned Community Act (R.S. 9:1141.1 et seq.), a condominium regime governed by the Louisiana Condominium Act (R.S. 9:1121.101 et seq.), and an ordinary residential lease. A Louisiana tenant whose lease forbids flags on the balcony has the same statutory answer as a lot owner whose 1996 subdivision declaration forbids them.

The operative words are "removable, portable flag of the United States." That phrase decides most disputes. A flag hung from a bracket, a staff mounted on a porch column, or a flag flown from a temporary pole is removable and portable. A permanent in-ground flagpole set in concrete is not, and R.S. 9:1114 does not create a right to install one. Louisiana also stopped at the national flag. The Legislature did not list the state flag, branch of service flags, the POW/MIA flag, or first responder flags, so an association may still prohibit those outright if its documents do.

Subsection B preserves the association's authority to adopt or enforce reasonable provisions as to the size, time, place, and manner of displaying the flag. That is the negotiating space. A rule capping a wall-mounted flag at a stated size, requiring illumination for night display, keeping flags off the common areas, or fixing the bracket location on the facade is the kind of provision subsection B contemplates. A rule that functionally bans display, such as permitting the flag only on four federal holidays, is a restriction on displaying the flag and runs into subsection A.

Two other sections of the Planned Community Act tighten the screws further on a Louisiana board. R.S. 9:1141.37(D) states that a rule regulating display of the flag of the United States shall be consistent with federal law, which imports the federal standard into the board's own rulemaking. R.S. 9:1141.37(A) requires the board to give all lot owners notice of a proposed rule, the text of the rule, and the date on which the board will act after considering comments from lot owners, and subsection B requires notice again after adoption. R.S. 9:1141.37(F) makes every rule adopted under that section subject to a reasonableness requirement. A flag rule slipped into a newsletter without the notice and comment step is vulnerable on procedure alone.

If a board wants to write a flag restriction into the declaration rather than the rules, R.S. 9:1141.14(C)(1)(a) requires a supermajority vote to prohibit or materially restrict the uses of a lot. R.S. 9:1141.2(33) defines that supermajority as more than eighty percent of the voting interest in the association, one of the highest amendment thresholds in the country. Even a successful eighty percent vote would not revive a ban that R.S. 9:1114 voids.

S. 9:1114 gives the owner or tenant one remedy: injunctive relief, available when a violation of the section occurs. Suit is brought in the district court for the parish where the property sits, and the practical ask is an injunction ordering the association to stop enforcing the flag provision and to rescind any citation issued under it. When injunctive relief is granted, the statute makes court costs and reasonable attorney fees available as well, which is what makes a small flag case worth filing. The section does not create a damages claim, so an owner seeking money back for a fine already paid is arguing about the fine, not about the flag statute.

S. S. 35(A). S. 20(F) forbids the association from being arbitrary or capricious in deciding whether to pursue enforcement, so selective flag enforcement against one owner while ignoring others is itself a defense.