North Dakota HOA Flag Display

Section 1 — Overview

Start with what North Dakota has not done. The state has never passed a flag-display statute for community associations, so a North Dakota association draws its only flag-specific limit from federal law — the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which protects the U.S. flag — while the recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions, the CC&Rs, govern every other flag question. The federal act, codified at 4 U.S.C. § 5, bars a condominium, cooperative, or residential real estate management association from adopting or enforcing any policy that restricts a member's display of the U.S. flag on property the member owns or has a right to use exclusively.¹ The North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act (N.D.C.C. Chapter 47-04.1) sets out how condominiums are created and run, but it says nothing about flags, and North Dakota has no comprehensive statute for non-condominium homeowners associations at all.² The state flag, military and uniformed-services flags, POW/MIA and first-responder flags, service flags, decorative flags, and every flagpole answer to the CC&Rs, not to any North Dakota statute. When a flag or covenant dispute reaches court, the North Dakota district courts try it, and appeals run to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which hears essentially all appeals directly; North Dakota keeps a Court of Appeals on the books, but it stays largely dormant and convenes only for the cases the Supreme Court hands it.³ The sections that follow lay out the federal floor, the absence of a state statute, the governing framework, and what an association can and cannot do.

Quick-Reference Table

Section 2 — The legal framework

2A. The federal floor: Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005

One flag-specific protection reaches into North Dakota, and it comes from Washington. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572) began as H.R. 42, became law on July 24, 2006, and now sits as a statutory note to 4 U.S.C. § 5.¹ Its operative section says a condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association "may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent a member of the association from displaying the flag of the United States on residential property within the association with respect to which such member has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use."¹ The act reaches three defined association types — "condominium association" and "cooperative association" as defined under 15 U.S.C. 3603, and "residential real estate management association" as defined under 26 U.S.C. 528 — which together cover most common-interest communities.¹ It lets an association impose "any reasonable restriction pertaining to the time, place, or manner of displaying the flag of the United States necessary to protect a substantial interest of the" association.¹ Its reach stays narrow: it protects only the flag of the United States, and only when a member displays it consistent with the Federal Flag Code (4 U.S.C. ch. 1, §§ 1-10).⁵ The act carries no enforcement mechanism and no private right of action. In Murphree v. Tides Condominium at Sweetwater by Del Webb, decided March 31, 2014 by Judge Marcia Morales Howard, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida held that the act "does not provide any enforcement mechanism, or explicitly create a private right of action for individuals such as Murphree to bring a lawsuit against a condominium association," and dismissed the federal claim without prejudice to refiling in state court.⁶ A member's practical remedy therefore usually runs through the association's own process and, where the CC&Rs supply a right of action, through the courts.

2B. The absence of a North Dakota flag statute

North Dakota has never enacted a flag-display statute for community associations, and the federal act stands as the only flag-specific protection inside the state. The North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act (N.D.C.C. Chapter 47-04.1) governs how condominiums come into being and operate — declarations, common areas, bylaws, assessments, and liens — yet it contains no flag provision.² Its only display-related sections protect political yard signs within sixty days before an election (§ 47-04.1-14) and electric vehicle charging stations (§ 47-04.1-16); neither one mentions flags.² So a condominium flag question turns on the federal floor for the U.S. flag and on the recorded declaration for everything else. Non-condominium communities have it even leaner: North Dakota gives them no comprehensive HOA statute, so those associations rely on their recorded CC&Rs, common-law principles of covenant enforcement, and, where the association incorporates as a nonprofit, the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporations Act (N.D.C.C. Chapter 10-33).⁷ The federal act does block an outright ban on the U.S. flag and does allow reasonable time, place, and manner rules; it creates no right to fly other flags, compels no flagpole, and displaces no CC&R rule on those subjects. Some readers assume the servitudes chapter (N.D.C.C. Chapter 47-05) is relevant, but it covers solar easements (§ 47-05-01.1) and wind easements (§ 47-05-14 and following), not flags, and carries no flag authority.⁸ The takeaway is plain: the U.S.-flag answer comes from the federal act, and every other flag and every flagpole comes from the CC&Rs.

2C. The governing framework and CC&Rs

North Dakota's governing statutes follow a traditional, document-driven model. The Condominium Ownership Act governs condominiums as a traditional condominium statute; North Dakota has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA).² Non-condominium communities operate without a comprehensive statute and depend on their CC&Rs, common law, and Chapter 10-33.⁷ The recorded CC&Rs serve as the operative rulebook for flags beyond the federal U.S.-flag floor. Precedence runs from the federal act (for the U.S. flag) to the recorded declaration or CC&Rs and any applicable statute, then to the bylaws, then to board-adopted rules. North Dakota keeps no dedicated HOA regulator or ombudsman; the association enforces the CC&Rs itself, and the courts resolve what the association cannot. The North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights investigates housing-discrimination and fair-housing complaints under the North Dakota Human Rights Act and Housing Discrimination Act — not flag-display disputes.⁹ The court structure carries almost no intermediate layer: trial-level disputes go to the district courts, which hold general jurisdiction, and appeals go to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which hears essentially all appeals directly.³ North Dakota does keep a Court of Appeals, but it is a temporary court that convenes only to decide cases the Supreme Court assigns it; established in 1987, it had written opinions disposing of 90 cases as of the court system's count, and in some years the Supreme Court assigns it none at all.¹⁰ For a property manager, that means a flag dispute the association cannot settle internally goes to district court and, on appeal, almost always straight to the state's highest court.

Section 3 — What a North Dakota association can and cannot do

A. Flags the association must permit

Federal law requires the association to permit a member to display the flag of the United States on residential property the member owns or has a right to use exclusively.¹ No North Dakota statute compels an association to permit any other flag or adds anything to the federal U.S.-flag protection; the state flag, military flags, and all other flags depend entirely on the CC&Rs.⁴

B. Reasonable restrictions the association may impose

Under the federal act, the association may impose reasonable time, place, and manner rules on the U.S. flag that protect a substantial interest.¹ Under the CC&Rs, the association may regulate the size, number, and placement of all flags and may set flagpole rules — provided that, for the U.S. flag, it does not cross into an outright ban on the member's own property.⁴

C. Actions the association may not take

Federal law forbids the association from imposing an outright ban on the U.S. flag on the member's own property or exclusive-use area, and it forbids using selective or pretextual enforcement to reach the same result.¹ Absent a state statute, any restriction on other flags rises or falls on the CC&Rs and general covenant-enforcement principles, including the requirement that an association enforce its covenants reasonably and consistently.²

D. Enforcement and dispute resolution

The federal act carries no private right of action, so a member cannot sue under the act itself.⁶ North Dakota keeps no dedicated HOA regulator, so enforcement runs through the association process and then the district court, with appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals only rarely involved.³ These claims typically arise from the association's covenant-enforcement and fining authority under the CC&Rs, so the practical fight usually turns on whether a flag rule is a reasonable, evenly applied restriction rather than a prohibited ban.²

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

A review of the North Dakota Legislative Branch bill indexes for the 69th Legislative Assembly (2025-2026) and the 68th Legislative Assembly (2023-2024) turned up no bill or resolution that would create or amend a flag-display rule for community associations.¹¹

[Status: No flag-display bill found | Effective: N/A | Sunset: N/A | Last verified: July 16, 2026]

B. Recent rulings

A review of the North Dakota Supreme Court opinions database turned up no North Dakota Supreme Court or district court ruling from the past 36 months that applied the federal flag act, applied a North Dakota flag statute (there is none), or resolved a CC&R flag dispute in a community association.¹²

[Court: None identified | Decided: N/A | Status: N/A | Last verified: July 16, 2026]

C. Active legislative debates

No active North Dakota legislative debate over a community-association flag-display rule surfaced as of the last verification date. North Dakota's flag-specific activity in this area stays minimal, and this section reads thin on purpose: no bill and no ruling could be verified on the official sites, so this coverage reports none.

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

North Dakota sits among the states that supply only the federal floor and leave everything else to the CC&Rs, with no flag-display statute of its own. It shares that posture with other federal-floor-plus-CC&Rs states such as Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska. That sets it apart from several other approaches: the narrow U.S.-flag-only statutes (Alabama, Ala. Code § 35-1-5; Louisiana, La. R.S. 9:1114; Maryland, Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128); the two-flag states that add the state flag (Connecticut, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-261b; Minnesota, Minn. Stat. § 500.215; Nevada, NRS 116.320; North Carolina, N.C.G.S. § 47C-3-121); the broad enumerated-list states that name military, POW/MIA, first-responder, and other flags (Arizona, A.R.S. § 33-1808; Florida, Fla. Stat. § 720.304; Idaho, Idaho Code § 55-3210); and the content-neutral states that bar an association from discriminating by a flag's message (Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5). For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is that in North Dakota the U.S.-flag answer comes from the federal act and everything else comes from the CC&Rs, with disputes running to the North Dakota Supreme Court. Because the federal U.S.-flag floor is identical in every state, the U.S.-flag answer does not change at the North Dakota border.

Federal frameworks — the flag act, along with the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and the OTARD rule — apply to North Dakota associations no matter what the state framework says.

Footnotes

1. 4 U.S.C. § 5, Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572 (statutory note), U.S. Code (Office of the Law Revision Counsel) ↩
2. N.D.C.C. Chapter 47-04.1, Condominium Ownership of Real Property, North Dakota Century Code ↩
3. North Dakota Court System, District Court Appeal to Supreme Court ↩
4. No North Dakota statute addresses these items; the federal act reaches only the U.S. flag (4 U.S.C. § 5), so other flags and flagpoles are governed by the recorded CC&Rs ↩
5. Federal Flag Code, 4 U.S.C. ch. 1, §§ 1-10, U.S. Code (Office of the Law Revision Counsel) ↩
6. Murphree v. Tides Condominium at Sweetwater by Del Webb, No. 3:13-cv-713-J-34MCR, 2014 WL 1293863 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 31, 2014) (holding the act has no private right of action) ↩
7. N.D.C.C. Chapter 10-33, North Dakota Nonprofit Corporations Act, North Dakota Century Code ↩
8. N.D.C.C. Chapter 47-05, Servitudes (solar easement § 47-05-01.1; wind easement § 47-05-14), North Dakota Century Code ↩
9. North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights, Housing Discrimination ↩
10. North Dakota Court System, Court of Appeals ↩
11. North Dakota Legislative Branch, 69th Legislative Assembly Bills & Resolutions Index ↩
12. North Dakota Court System, Supreme Court Opinions search ↩