A San Diego Navy family has flown the American flag in front of their home for 20 years.
America turns 250 and their HOA decided that it was time to rain on their parade.
The reason they put in writing is something no American should ever have to read.
HOA Flag Rules Called Old Glory a Political Statement
Chris and Amy Cooke live in San Marcos, California – and last week the Ambiance Owners' Association sent them a letter threatening $100 fines if they didn't pull their American flags from the front of their homes.
Their neighbor Terri Collins got the same letter.
The board's written reasoning made it worse.
"Once the members allow use of a common property by an owner to express what is essentially a political or affiliative view in a flag," the letter read, "other owners will want to do the same and the common area will degrade."
The board just told residents that Old Glory degrades the neighborhood.
Amy Cooke, 62, didn't hide how she felt about that.
"We are outraged, if you want to fly your flag fly it, this is America," she told the California Post. "We are the land of the free and home of the brave, this is crazy."
She added: "The American Flag is a symbol of freedom, we know where their brain is at."
Terri Collins has flown hers for 35 years.
The Sailor Who Died Rescuing His Shipmates
Chris Cooke, 56, a wine distributor, flies that flag for a specific reason – his grandfather Alexander Christie.
Christie was a Navy sailor aboard the USS Princeton when a Japanese dive bomber hit the carrier on October 24, 1944, at the largest naval battle in history, Leyte Gulf.
The Princeton caught fire and exploded, with Christie killed in the chaos trying to rescue his crewmates.
He was awarded the Navy Purple Heart and Navy Cross for his bravery.
Christie left behind a wife and a daughter one month old – that daughter grew up without her father and became Chris's mother.
"The generational impact was substantial," Chris said. "My grandmother was suddenly widowed and a single mother."
His family paid the price for that flag in blood – and now a California HOA board wants it moved to the backyard.
Terri Collins has her own connection to military service. San Marcos sits in the shadow of the old Miramar Navy Base, where Top Gun pilots trained for combat, and she says military families have always defined the neighborhood.
"Different political opinions should have nothing to do with it," she told the Post. "I'm buying a giant flag, and I mean giant."
She's not paying the fines either.
"They can fine me, $100, $200, $1,000, I'm not paying it," Terri said.
The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act Says Otherwise
The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, enacted by Congress in 2005 and signed into law in 2006, makes clear that no HOA can prohibit its members from displaying the American flag on their residential property.
The Ambiance HOA found a loophole.
The law permits HOAs to impose "reasonable restrictions" on the time, place, and manner of display – which is how this board is justifying its front-yard ban. The flag can fly in the backyard, they say. Just not in front.
That carve-out isn't a blank check. The HOA must demonstrate a "substantial interest" in the restriction, and courts have consistently held that aesthetic preference alone doesn't clear that bar.
The Ambiance board put its actual motivation in writing – the flag is a political statement – and that's a far more dangerous legal position than any argument about flagpole placement.
Former Fox News host and California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton didn't mince words.
"What is wrong with these people?" he told the Post. "We are just about to celebrate the 250th birthday of our country."
He called the HOA board members "tin-pot bureaucrats" and urged the entire neighborhood to double and triple their flag displays.
The Cookes have been granted a 15-minute Zoom hearing with the board. If the board doesn't stand down, they plan to crowdfund legal representation.
"We've never sued anyone in our life," Chris said. "We're just here to fly our flag and be left alone."
Terri says she has watched flags disappear from front yards across the street over the past two months – neighbors folding under pressure one by one.
Only the Cookes and Terri Collins are still flying Old Glory out front in San Marcos – two American flags on a street of million-dollar homes, holding the line the week their country turns 250.
Chris Cooke is planning the same Fourth of July he always has – pool, cards, BBQ, fireworks.
He's also planning apple pie.
"Don't forget the apple pie for dessert," he said.
Sources:
- Jeremy Louwerse, "Patriotic Californians explode at HOA's 'crazy anti-American' demand ahead of Fourth of July," New York Post, June 28, 2026.
- "Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005," H.R. 42, 109th Congress, Congress.gov.
- "Loss of USS Princeton," Naval History and Heritage Command, history.navy.mil.
- "The Battle of Leyte Gulf," The National WWII Museum, nationalww2museum.org, October 2024.