Book clubs aside, the ability to join a HOA is a freedom. Contrarily, if the Supreme Court forces New York City to allow guns in its Walmarts, that would be a restriction of freedom.
Of course there is; just don't buy a house that is part of an HOA. Most houses in the US are not part of any HOA. Apartments are also not part of HOAs (but of course anyone living there has to follow the rules put down by the owners, and it’s not like the residents get to vote on those). Condos are always part of a condo association, but those are a fraction of the housing in the US.
Also, if your neighbor asks you to vote to create an HOA, vote against it.
Covenants are separate from the deed and title searches fail to uncover them all the time. That's part of the problem, you buy a deed and some boomer crawls out from 6 feet under to unilaterally impose his will. It's infuriating as this crept up constantly when I was looking for land to build a tiny house and many sellers didn't even know some dead boomer made it illegal to not build a mcmansion in some ancient document the title clerk digs up.
That some dead previous owner can unilaterally say 'none of that' and it be binding on subsequent transfers and heirs is opposite the freedom of association.
> HOAs are often tied to a piece of land, with it being mandatory to join if you buy the land.
Legally speaking one is often not buying the land but rather buying the unit. The land on which the unit sits is owned by a corporation (HOA), and as a condition of the lease you must abide by the corporation's rules.
Freedom isn’t the same as lawlessness.