Regulation of Political Signs in Private Homeowner Associations: A New Approach

I. INTRODUCTION

Special respect for individual liberty in the home has long been part of our culture and our law and that principle has special resonance when government seeks to constrain a person's ability to speak there. Most Americans would be understandably dismayed, given that tradition, to learn that it was illegal to display from their window an 8 by 11inch sign expressing their political views.1

The concept of the home as a zone of nearly unfettered individual liberty is one of the bedrock principles of American law and culture. Chief among the liberties safeguarded from governmental interference within this zone is freedom of speech, a liberty protected by the First Amendment.2 While the First Amendment prevents the government from infringing on an individual's speech in many settings, its protection is especially strong in the home. As Justice Stevens wrote in City of Ladue v. Gilleo, any attempt by the government to prohibit certain forms of speech in the home is so antithetical to our common understanding of individual liberty that it is likely to arouse impassioned opposition.