2026-09-12 · Minnesota · Legislation · Did not pass

What happened. A bill that would have stopped Minnesota associations from restricting the display of military service flags, the POW/MIA flag and Blue Star and Gold Star Service flags is dead. It is not law.

S.F. 2061 (Sen. Duckworth, with Sens. Bahr, Howe, Lang and Seeberger) and H.F. 2185 (Rep. Witte) reached the floor calendar in both chambers and neither was called up for a vote.¹²

What Minnesota law protects today

Minn. Stat. § 500.215 makes void and unenforceable any covenant, deed restriction, ordinance, contract, rental agreement or association document limiting the display of the United States flag and the Minnesota state flag — and nothing else.³

A service-branch flag, a POW/MIA flag, a Blue Star flag or a Gold Star flag has no statutory protection in Minnesota. Where an association's documents restrict flag display generally, those flags fall inside the restriction.

The existing exceptions in subdivision 2 remain: an association may still regulate size customary to residential property, display in exclusive-use areas, illumination, condition, and non-permanent attachment.

What the bill would have added

It would have amended subdivision 1 so that a limit on the POW/MIA flag, the flag of any branch of the United States Armed Forces, or a Blue Star or Gold Star Service flag was likewise void and unenforceable.

The retroactivity clause was the sharp part. The bill was effective the day following final enactment and expressly applied to restrictions “regardless of whether adopted before, on, or after that date” — overriding existing covenants, not just future ones.

How far it got

S.F. 2061: introduced 3 March 2025 to Judiciary; withdrawn and re-referred to State and Local Government on 26 March 2026; committee report “to pass” and second reading on 7 April 2026. It reached General Orders and stopped.

H.F. 2185: introduced 12 March 2025; committee report to adopt and second reading on 12 March 2026. It reached the General Register and stopped.

Both died when the 94th Legislature adjourned sine die on 18 May 2026.

1. S.F. 2061 bill status and action history — Minnesota Revisor of Statutes ↩
2. H.F. 2185 bill status and action history — Minnesota Revisor of Statutes ↩
3. Minn. Stat. § 500.215 — display of the flag of the United States and the State of Minnesota ↩
4. S.F. 1564 bill status (broader “any flag” version; never heard) — Minnesota Revisor of Statutes ↩
5. Warner v. Pines of North Oaks Home Owners’ Ass’n, No. A25-1129 (Minn. Ct. App. 17 Feb. 2026) (nonprecedential) — slip opinion ↩