He usually represented condo and HOA boards, so whenever I would mention a common complaint about HOA boards he would explain, in great detail, the legal rationale for why HOA boards do some of the things they do.
At the time, he was representing an HOA board that was being sued by one of the owners for enforcing their flag/banner restrictions. The homeowner claimed that his First Amendment rights were being violated because the HOA wouldn’t allow him to fly an Ohio State flag during college football season. The lawyer said he always advises HOA boards to enforce rules like this very strictly. I never forget his quote about that issue: ”If you let one homeowner fly an Ohio State flag, you can’t stop the one next door from flying a Nazi flag.”
It’s called selective enforcement and it’s a common thing in HOAs, the board members and their allies get away with stuff and all the rest of the owners are targeted usually because of some personal vendetta.
I’ve been on the Board a couple of times, I was unpopular with the other Board members because my philosophy was, we needed fewer rules versus more so we could enforce a few rules that were black and white versus someone’s personal taste in things.
Where this really gets ugly is in neighborhoods that have an Architectural Review Board that has to approve color changes to homes that need painting or what trees can be taken down, etc.
The ARBs are nothing more than trouble waiting to happen, it comes down to friendships and someone’s personal taste on what gets improved versus what gets rejected.