So, here’s the short version. A woman has a husband over in Iraq. She puts up a “Support Our Troops” sign on her front lawn. The Homeowners' Association tells her she needs to take it down.

TAMPA - Before David Kelley went to Iraq, he bought his wife a "Support Our Troops" sign to display outside the couple's home in the Westchase subdivision.

When Kelley, an Army private, went overseas in November, Stacey Kelley posted the sign outside their home. For her, the sign is a daily reminder of the sacrifice her husband and fellow soldiers are making.

But officials of Westchase, in northwest Hillsborough County, view the sign differently. They say the 2-foot-high sign violates community rules. Stacey Kelley, 24, received a letter from the homeowners association last month stating she could be fined $100 a day if she does not remove the sign.

So here’s the rub. The rules are the rules. And while I’m 150% behind her support (being a former troop myself), I’m torn over this as it’s a clear violation of the rules. I live in a deed restricted community myself (granted, to this date I have never signed anything stating I’ve read the rules nor have I ever been supplied a copy of them) so I’m aware there are things I’m not allowed to do. People join these communities voluntarily because they want to try to keep their home values from dropping because of neighbors who either don’t take care of their houses or make living uncomfortable for others. Political signs could be one of those situations.

What gets me is that this sign is so benign. I don’t know if it was against the rules or not, but plenty of people had Bush, Kerry, Dean, and even Ralph Nader signs up in ‘04 around my hood. I have no problem with those. However, I would have had problems with signs that equated Bush with Hitler or slandered Kerry’s Vietnam service. I’m pretty sure that’s the HOA’s view too. If you allow signs of support, some asshole could easily display a sign degrading them, and there you have a situation that could adversely affect home values and / or comfort of living.

Some are making this a First Amendment issue, and there it gets even murkier.

Homeowners association attorneys say Westchase's board of directors was within its rights to tell Stacey Kelley to take down the 2-foot-tall sign she put up after her husband, an Army private, deployed to Iraq in November.

The association is a private entity, said Richard A. Harrison, a Tampa lawyer who specializes in local government law. The constitution only protects citizens from action taken by the government, he said.

"No government is telling [Kelley] she can't say what she wants to say," he said.

But Barry Silver, a South Florida lawyer who represents homeowners in property-rights cases, said the contracts that associations require their residents to sign don't give citizens enough information about the rights they're waiving.

Most people don't mind giving up the freedom to paint their house certain colors, Silver said, but fewer people would sign a document that explicitly stated residents were giving up constitutional rights.

…

"There's a compelling argument that in the United States, these rights are basic and fundamental," Silver said. "They're so basic, you can't give them up."

Again, I never signed diddley, so I’m not sure what rights I would be expected to give up. I have no problem with a ‘no political signs’ rule due to the possible scenarios mentioned above, but at the same time wouldn’t have an issue if someone wanted to support a particular candidate, even if I didn’t. As lo g as it’s a positive support for a particular politician and not negative against another, I couldn’t care less. But if there were effigies being hung or burned, then yeah. Invoke HOA policy #12,539.a.7 by all means.

However, a good point is made that HOA’s are "constitutional actors" because they often act like local governments.

So it’s a tough call for me. Personally, as long as there isn’t a large outrage over the sign, I say leave it up. If someone posts a derogatory sign in protest, then see where it goes from there. Sometimes rules can be bent without breaking you know. Then again, sometimes they can’t.