Nobody testified against Nebraska's HOA political sign bill. It died anyway
Nobody testified against Nebraska's HOA political sign bill. It died anyway
2026-09-12 · Nebraska · Legislation · Did not pass
At the February 27, 2025 hearing on LB 360, the committee chair asked for opponents and got silence. “Any opponents of LB360? Neutral testifiers? Going once.”1 Not one person came forward. The bill was indefinitely postponed fourteen months later, on April 17, 2026, without the Judiciary Committee ever taking a vote on it.2
What it would have done
Senator Danielle Conrad of Lincoln introduced it on January 16, 2025. The operative rule, at Section 1(2):
“Except as otherwise provided by this section, a homeowner association may not adopt or enforce a restrictive covenant that prohibits a property owner from displaying political signs on the owner's property advertising a candidate or a ballot measure in an election for which such signs pertain for the period beginning ninety days before the election and ending ten days after the election.”3
This was not a bill that stripped associations of control. Section 1(3) preserved a substantial list of powers: an association could still require that signs be ground-mounted, cap the count at one sign per candidate or ballot measure, and prohibit signs larger than four feet by six feet, signs containing “language, graphics, or any display that would be offensive to the ordinary person,” signs “accompanied by music or other sounds,” signs threatening public health or safety, and signs violating any law. Section 1(4) preserved the association's right to remove a violating sign.
A narrower definition than it first appears
One drafting detail limits the bill's reach and is worth noting because it differs from the other Nebraska HOA bill of the same biennium. LB 360's definition of “homeowner association” at Section 1(1) covers only associations located within the corporate limits of a municipality.3 LB 137, the solar bill, borrowed the broader definition at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 18-3102. A Nebraska subdivision in unincorporated county ground would not have been covered by LB 360 at all.
The record it built, and the record it did not
Conrad opened with the constituent who prompted it: “Shortly after I was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2022, I heard from a constituent in north Lincoln who was frustrated that he was unable to erect a political yard sign in his front yard in support of the candidate of his choice because of a restricted covenant in his homeowners association documents.”1
Dylan Severino, policy counsel for the ACLU of Nebraska, testified in support: “While private organizations like homeowners associations have the ability to regulate private property within their association in order to maintain esthetics and uniformity, they should not do so at the cost of political speech of their residents.”1
Written comments ran 14 proponent, 4 opponent, none neutral. Against that, the Community Associations Institute's 2026 Nebraska report lists LB 360 among the bills it opposed and which “Successfully DIED in Committee.”4 The opposition that mattered was not in the hearing room.
Second failure, same senator
Conrad had run the same bill before. LB 886, introduced January 3, 2024 under the same title, went to Judiciary and was indefinitely postponed on April 18, 2024.5 LB 360 was carried over from the 2025 session into 2026 as one of 88 bills held in Judiciary, and died on the adjournment motion.
What governs a Nebraska political sign today
The declaration, and only the declaration. Nebraska has no statute limiting what a recorded covenant may say about political signage. An association whose declaration prohibits yard signs generally may enforce that prohibition against a candidate sign, subject to the ordinary contract-law limits on covenant enforcement.
Municipal sign ordinances are a separate layer. They constrain what a city may do, not what a private covenant may do, and a sign can be perfectly lawful under the municipal code while violating the declaration.
Uniform enforcement is the practical exposure. Nebraska courts treat restrictive covenants as contracts running with the land, and waiver and selective-enforcement defences are available. An association that has tolerated real-estate, contractor and sports signage for years and then acts on a candidate sign is building the other side's case. That is a documentation question the board controls, not a statutory one.
What to watch next
Watch the 2027 introduction window, which opens with the 110th Legislature on January 6, 2027 and closes roughly ten legislative days later. Nebraska does not pre-file, so nothing is visible before then. Note also that 2026 was an election year: whether Conrad is in a position to introduce a third version is a separate question from whether the Legislature would move it.
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