Nebraska HOA Political Signs

Section 1: Overview — How political signs are regulated in Nebraska HOAs

Nebraska has no statute restricting an association's regulation of political signs, so display rights come down to each community's recorded declaration.¹ The question of whether a homeowner may post a campaign sign turns on the covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) recorded against that specific community, not a state political-sign protection.

Nebraska has no comprehensive HOA statute. Non-condominium associations operate under their recorded covenants and the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act,² and the state's two condominium regimes, the Nebraska Condominium Act for regimes created on or after January 1, 1984, and the older Condominium Property Act for earlier regimes, contain no political-sign protection.^3,4

The First Amendment doesn't constrain a Nebraska association's sign rules, because an association is a private entity created by contract, not a state actor. The Nebraska Constitution contains a free-speech clause at Article I, Section 5,⁵ but no Nebraska appellate decision has applied it to a private association's sign restrictions, so covenants get enforced as private contracts.

That places Nebraska among the CC&R-primary states, in contrast to protective-statute states such as California, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, and Montana, which bar associations from banning political signs while allowing reasonable rules.⁶ The sections ahead set out the legal framework, the operational rules, and the recent legislative record.

Section 2: The legal framework for political signs

2A. Statutory protection in Nebraska, and its absence

Nebraska has enacted no political-sign protection for association residents. No statute bars a Nebraska association from prohibiting or restricting political or campaign signs, and none guarantees a homeowner the right to display one.

The governing framework stays silent on political signs. Nebraska has no comprehensive planned-community or HOA statute. Most non-condominium associations are nonprofit corporations that operate under their recorded covenants and the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-1901 et seq., which addresses corporate structure and procedure and says nothing about signs.² Condominiums are governed by one of two regimes by date of creation. The Nebraska Condominium Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-825 to 76-894, applies to condominium regimes created on or after January 1, 1984.³ The older Condominium Property Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-801 to 76-823, applies to regimes created before that date.⁴ The two regimes stay distinct, and the provisions of the older act don't apply to condominiums created after January 1, 1984.⁷ Neither act contains a political-sign provision.

The consequence follows directly. Because there's no HOA statute, and because the two condominium regimes are limited to condominiums and stay silent on political signs, the recorded declaration controls whether and how a political sign may be displayed in a given Nebraska community.

The contrast with protective-statute states shows what Nebraska lacks. California Civil Code § 4710, for example, provides that an association's governing documents may not prohibit the posting or display of noncommercial signs, posters, flags, or banners on or in a member's separate interest, subject to stated exceptions and size limits.⁶ That's another state's law. Nebraska has adopted no equivalent.

2B. The First Amendment and the state constitution

The federal First Amendment limits government action, not private conduct. Its free-speech clause constrains state actors, and it reaches a private party only where that party engages in state action.

A Nebraska homeowners association or condominium association is a private entity created by contract. Its authority comes from a recorded declaration that binds owners who take title subject to it, and enforcing that declaration is private contractual action, not government action. For that reason, the First Amendment doesn't apply to a Nebraska association's sign rules.

This point stands as the most common error in lay and law-firm-blog coverage of the topic. Owners and boards sometimes assume that because political speech receives strong constitutional protection against the government, a homeowner has a First Amendment right to post a campaign sign despite a contrary covenant. That assumption is incorrect as applied to a private association. The constitutional protection runs against the state, and covenant enforcement by a private association isn't state action.

Government sign regulation is a separate matter from association regulation. The United States Supreme Court decisions in Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) and City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising (2022) concern the content-neutrality of municipal sign codes. They limit what a city may do in its sign ordinance. They don't constrain a private association's sign rules.

A small minority of states read their state constitution's free-speech clause to reach private community associations in limited circumstances. New Jersey stands as the leading example: in Mazdabrook Commons Homeowners' Ass'n v. Khan, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that a near-total ban on residential signs violated the free-speech clause of the New Jersey Constitution as applied to a homeowner's own unit.⁸ The Nebraska Constitution contains a free-speech clause at Article I, Section 5.⁵ No published Nebraska decision has applied that clause to a private association's sign restrictions. Absent that authority, the federal state-action principle controls, and Nebraska covenants get enforced as private contracts.

2C. The role of CC&Rs and permissible restrictions

With no statute setting a floor, the recorded declaration becomes the operative rulebook for political signs in a Nebraska community. Whether a sign may go up, and on what terms, gets answered by reading the declaration, then the bylaws, then any validly adopted board rules.

The order of precedence runs from any applicable statute — none of which protects political signs in Nebraska — to the recorded declaration, then the bylaws, then board rules. Under the Nebraska Condominium Act, where a declaration and bylaws conflict, the declaration prevails except to the extent it's inconsistent with the Act.⁹ The general principle: where Nebraska statute stays silent, the governing documents fill the gap, and where a governing document conflicts with a controlling statute, the statute controls.

Nebraska courts enforce restrictive covenants as written, subject to established limits. An action to enforce a restrictive covenant is equitable, and covenants get enforced according to their plain language, though the law doesn't favor them and, if ambiguous, construes them to allow the maximum unrestricted use of the property.¹⁰ A covenant that grants a board discretion to approve or disapprove is enforceable provided the authority is exercised reasonably.¹¹ Enforcement can be lost through waiver or acquiescence, but, as the Nebraska Supreme Court held in Pine Tree Neighborhood Ass'n v. Moses, "a waiver does not result unless there have been general and multiple violations without protest," and "[t]he enforcement of valid restrictive covenants may be denied only when noncompliance is so general as to indicate an intention or purpose to abandon" the restriction.¹²

Through its declaration or validly adopted rules, a Nebraska association may typically regulate the placement of signs on a lot or unit as opposed to common areas or common elements, the size of signs, the number of signs, the duration or time window of display, and, where the declaration provides for it, may impose a total ban. Even though Nebraska imposes no statutory sign standard, consistent and non-discriminatory enforcement remains a practical risk frame, because selective enforcement can defeat an otherwise valid covenant.¹²

The operational takeaway: in Nebraska, the answer to whether a sign may go up sits in the community's recorded declaration, read against the general provisions of the applicable corporate or condominium statute — not in a sign statute, because none exists.

Section 3: Operational rules for Nebraska associations

Because Nebraska has no political-sign statute, most of the rules below flow from the recorded declaration and from the general corporate and condominium statutes, not from a sign-specific protection. There's no statutory floor guaranteeing sign display, and no statutory ceiling forbidding a ban.

A. What an association may not do

An association may not enforce a covenant that wasn't validly adopted or that falls outside the authority granted by the declaration; Nebraska courts enforce only restrictions of which an owner had notice (non-condominium HOA and condominium).¹⁰ An association may not enforce a sign covenant selectively; consistent, non-discriminatory enforcement is required, and general unprotested noncompliance can result in waiver (non-condominium HOA and condominium).¹² Nebraska imposes no statutory prohibition on banning or restricting political signs, so the operative limit on the association is the declaration plus general covenant-enforcement law, not a sign statute.¹

B. What an association may regulate

Where the declaration or validly adopted rules provide for it, an association may regulate the placement, size, number, and duration of signs, and may impose a total ban. For condominiums, the unit owners association holds statutory power to adopt and amend rules and regulations and to regulate the use of common elements, subject to the declaration (condominium under the Nebraska Condominium Act).¹³ For non-condominium HOAs, the same regulatory authority must be found in the declaration and bylaws, read with the Nonprofit Corporation Act (non-condominium HOA).²

C. Enforcement and fining constraints

For condominiums, the Nebraska Condominium Act permits the association to levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules only after notice and a chance to be heard (condominium).¹³ For non-condominium HOAs, fining authority isn't conferred by statute and must be grounded in the declaration or bylaws, with whatever notice the governing documents require (non-condominium HOA).² An association that seeks to enforce a covenant through the courts pursues an equitable action and may be denied relief if it has acted inequitably or enforced inconsistently.¹¹ Removal of a sign should follow the enforcement process in the governing documents rather than self-help, and a separate lien and collection process governs unpaid assessments under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001 (non-condominium HOA and condominium).¹⁴

D. Rule adoption and disclosure

Sign rules are enforceable only if adopted under the authority of the declaration and applicable statute. For condominiums, the declaration is recorded, amendments to it must be recorded to be effective, and the executive board's rulemaking runs through the Act (condominium).¹³ For non-condominium HOAs, the declaration and any amendments are recorded with the county register of deeds, and board rules must trace back to authority in the recorded documents (non-condominium HOA).¹⁰ Associations should keep records of adoption and enforcement actions, both to show valid adoption and to rebut a selective-enforcement defense.¹²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

Nebraska's light-touch approach means little association-specific activity, and none has become law on political signs. The Legislature is unicameral and nonpartisan, and bills carry LB numbers.

A. Recent bills

A predecessor bill, LB886 (2024), was materially identical: it would have let associations prohibit signs "larger than four feet by six feet," signs "offensive to the ordinary person," and signs accompanied by "music or other sounds," and, per Lincoln Journal Star reporting, the restriction applied only for the 90 days before an election and the 10 days after it.¹⁶ It met the same fate, dying in the Judiciary Committee after a January 25, 2024 hearing at which ACLU of Nebraska legal fellow Grant Friedman testified in support that "[w]hile private organizations like HOAs have the ability to regulate private property within their associations, they cannot disregard the free speech rights of their residents" — with no one testifying in opposition — and getting indefinitely postponed.¹⁶

B. Recent rulings

No published opinion from the Nebraska Court of Appeals or the Nebraska Supreme Court in the past thirty-six months has addressed the regulation of political or campaign signs by an association or the enforcement of a sign covenant. General covenant-enforcement principles come from cases on other subject matter, such as Pine Tree Neighborhood Ass'n v. Moses, 314 Neb. 445 (2023), which concerned a covenant on outdoor vehicle storage rather than signs.¹²

C. Active legislative debates

As of July 17, 2026, no active proposal would create a political-sign protection for Nebraska association residents. The topic remains governed by recorded declarations.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Nebraska sits in the second of two broad national categories for this topic. The first group: protective-statute states that bar associations from prohibiting political signs while allowing reasonable time, place, and manner rules, including California (Civil Code § 4710), Arizona (A.R.S. §§ 33-1808 and 33-1261), Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5), Indiana (Ind. Code § 32-21-13), Kansas (K.S.A. 58-4601 et seq.), Maryland (Md. Code, Real Property §§ 11-111.2 and 11B-111.2), Missouri (RSMo § 442.404, for HOAs), and Montana (Mont. Code Ann. § 70-1-522). The second group: CC&R-primary states with no political-sign statute, where the declaration controls, including Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Mississippi. Because Nebraska has no statute, a political-sign question turns on the community's recorded declaration. Owners and boards commonly raise the First Amendment, but the correct rule holds that it doesn't apply to a private association's sign rules.

HOA Weekly's Nebraska Political Signs coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the Nebraska courts act. Federal frameworks, including the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD, apply to Nebraska associations regardless of the state framework, but the federal First Amendment doesn't supply a basis to challenge an association's sign rules.

Footnotes

1. Nebraska Revised Statutes (no chapter enacts a political-sign protection for association residents) ↩
2. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-1901 (Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, how cited) ↩
3. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-825 (Nebraska Condominium Act, how cited) ↩
4. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-801 (Condominium Property Act, how cited) ↩
5. Neb. Const. art. I, § 5 (Freedom of speech and press) ↩
6. Cal. Civ. Code § 4710 (Display of Noncommercial Signs) (another state's law, cited for contrast) ↩
7. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-826 (applicability; pre- and post-January 1, 1984 regimes) ↩
8. Mazdabrook Commons Homeowners' Ass'n v. Khan, 210 N.J. 482 (2012) (New Jersey; state constitution) ↩
9. Nebraska Condominium Act (declaration prevails over bylaws except where inconsistent with §§ 76-825 to 76-894) ↩
10. Curtis Acres Ass'n v. Hosman, 22 Neb. App. 652 (2015) (enforcement according to plain language; notice) ↩
11. Curtis Acres Ass'n v. Hosman, 22 Neb. App. 652 (2015) (reasonable exercise of discretionary authority; unclean hands) ↩
12. Pine Tree Neighborhood Ass'n v. Moses, 314 Neb. 445 (2023) (waiver and selective enforcement of restrictive covenants) ↩
13. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-860 (unit owners association; powers, including rules and reasonable fines after notice and hearing) ↩
14. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001 (homeowners' association assessment lien) ↩
15. LB360 (2025), 109th Legislature (bill status page; indefinitely postponed) ↩
16. LB886 (2024), 108th Legislature (bill status page; indefinitely postponed) ↩