Rhode Island HOA Religious Displays

Section 1: Overview — How religious displays are regulated in Rhode Island HOAs

Rhode Island is one of a minority of states with an express statutory protection for religious displays. R.I. Gen. Laws Section 34-37-5.5 bars covered property owners from prohibiting a religious item affixed to the entry of a dwelling where the display is motivated by the resident's sincere religious belief.¹ That protection sits on top of the federal Fair Housing Act and the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act, producing a four-layer framework rather than the federal-dominant analysis that governs most states.

The statute is located in the fair housing chapter, Title 34, Chapter 34-37, not the Condominium Act, and it reaches landlords, condominium management committees under the older horizontal-property regime, and condominium unit-owner associations under the modern Condominium Act.¹ Many owners assume the First Amendment governs an association's display rules. It generally doesn't: a private community association isn't a state actor, so the operative sources here are the express statute and fair housing law, not the First Amendment.

The federal floor is the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 3604(b), which prohibits discrimination in the terms, conditions, or privileges of a dwelling because of religion.² Recorded declarations still govern displays through architectural and aesthetic covenants, except where the express statute or fair housing law overrides them. Rhode Island's placement of the protection in its fair housing chapter, and its enactment in 2015, put it among a small group of states with a display-specific statute of this kind.¹ The sections ahead lay out the legal framework, the compliance obligations it creates, recent activity, and Rhode Island's national position.

Section 2: The legal framework

2A. The First Amendment threshold and the federal Fair Housing Act

The First Amendment's Free Exercise and Free Speech clauses constrain government, not private parties. A community association enforcing display covenants generally acts as a private entity, not a state actor, so residents can't ordinarily assert First Amendment rights against the association itself. Narrow state-constitutional exceptions exist in a few jurisdictions — New Jersey courts have extended limited free-speech protections against certain private communities — but that's neither the federal baseline nor the Rhode Island rule. In Rhode Island, the operative constraints on association display rules are statutory: the express religious-display statute, the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act, and the federal Fair Housing Act.

The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 3601 et seq., applies to community associations as housing providers. Section 3604(b) makes it unlawful to discriminate in the terms, conditions, or privileges of the sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities, because of religion, among other protected classes.² Liability runs through two theories. Disparate treatment means intentional, unequal handling of a religion's displays — removing a Jewish resident's mezuzah while leaving comparable secular items in place, say. Disparate impact means a facially neutral rule that disproportionately burdens observant adherents — a flat ban on all doorframe attachments that effectively excludes Jewish residents religiously obligated to affix a mezuzah, for instance. The Supreme Court recognized disparate-impact liability under the Fair Housing Act in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, 576 U.S. 519 (2015), while requiring a robust causal link between the challenged policy and the disparity.³

The leading mezuzah case is Bloch v. Frischholz, 587 F.3d 771 (7th Cir. 2009), decided en banc. There, the Seventh Circuit held that a condominium association's enforcement of a hallway rule to remove residents' mezuzot could support a Fair Housing Act claim for post-acquisition discrimination.⁴ Bloch is Seventh Circuit precedent. In Rhode Island, which sits in the First Circuit, it's persuasive, not binding. Rhode Island's Section 34-37-5.5 supplies a state-law rule that doesn't depend on that out-of-circuit precedent. HUD's 2016 harassment rule addresses association liability for quid pro quo and hostile-environment harassment because of religion and other protected characteristics, and sets standards for direct liability.⁵ The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 2000cc et seq., constrains government land-use regulation and institutions and generally doesn't apply to a private association's display restrictions.

2B. The Rhode Island express religious-display statute and the governing statutes

Rhode Island's express protection is R.I. Gen. Laws Section 34-37-5.5, enacted in 2015 — P.L. 2015, ch. 174 and ch. 184 — and located in the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act, Title 34, Chapter 34-37.¹ Under subsection (a), covered property owners can't enforce or adopt a restrictive covenant, or otherwise prohibit, a unit owner or tenant from displaying or affixing on the entry to the dwelling one or more religious items where the display is motivated by sincere religious belief. The covered property owners are defined by cross-reference: a landlord or owner under Section 34-18-11, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, a management committee under Section 34-36-3, the older horizontal-property regime, and an association of unit owners under Section 34-36.1-1.03, the Condominium Act.¹

The statute preserves several covenant carve-outs. Under subsection (b), a covenant may still, to the extent the state and federal constitutions allow, prohibit a religious item that threatens public health or safety, violates Chapter 37 of Title 34 or other anti-discrimination or housing law, sits in a location other than the entry door or doorframe — or extends past the outer edge of the doorframe — or, individually or in combination with other items, exceeds twenty-five square inches in total size.¹ Subsection (c) provides that the statute doesn't authorize a resident to use an unauthorized material or color for the entry door or doorframe or to make an unauthorized alteration to it, and subsection (d) lets a property owners' association remove an item displayed in violation of a permitted covenant.¹

The statute's reach is defined by those cross-referenced definitions, so it clearly covers rental housing and condominiums under both the older and modern regimes. Whether it reaches non-condominium planned-community homeowners associations isn't evident from its definitions, which key to rental, horizontal-property, and condominium terms, and that question should be verified rather than assumed. The surrounding anti-discrimination framework is the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act, Section 34-37-1 et seq., which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of religion and many other protected classes and is enforced by the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights.⁶ The governing statutes are the Condominium Act, Section 34-36.1-1.01 et seq., which applies to condominiums created after July 1, 1982, with pre-1982 condominiums able to opt in, and the older horizontal-property regime, Section 34-36-1 et seq., for earlier condominiums.⁷ Rhode Island has no comprehensive planned-community statute; non-condominium associations operate under their recorded covenants, the Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act, and common law.

2C. CC&Rs, architectural controls, and the limits on enforcement

Associations regulate displays in practice through architectural and aesthetic covenants, holiday-decoration limits, and sign and flag rules recorded in the declaration. These covenants remain enforceable as contract terms except where the express statute, the federal Fair Housing Act, or the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act overrides them.

For condominiums and rentals, the express statute changes the analysis. A covenant can't prohibit a sincere-belief religious item affixed to the entry, but it may still impose neutral limits on size — no more than twenty-five square inches in total — location, confined to the entry door and doorframe, public health and safety, and non-discrimination, and the resident may not make unauthorized alterations to the door or doorframe or change its color or material.¹ For any community the statute doesn't reach, the federal Fair Housing Act and the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act still apply, and a rule that excludes observant adherents carries disparate-treatment and disparate-impact exposure.²

Precedence runs from the express statute and federal and state fair housing law, then the recorded declaration — the CC&Rs — then bylaws, then board rules. For condominiums and rentals, the working rule is Section 34-37-5.5 read together with the declaration. For other communities, it's the declaration read against the fair housing floor.

Section 3: Compliance obligations created by the framework

A. Express-statute obligations

For covered condominiums and rentals, the association or landlord can't enforce or adopt a covenant prohibiting a sincere-belief religious item affixed to the dwelling entry — Rhode Island express statute, Section 34-37-5.5(a).¹ Permitted limits are confined to size, location, public health and safety, and non-discrimination, and an item may be removed only if it violates a permitted covenant — Rhode Island express statute, Section 34-37-5.5(b) and (d).¹

B. Anti-discrimination obligations

Under the federal Fair Housing Act, associations can't treat one religion's displays less favorably than comparable displays and must enforce display rules consistently and even-handedly — federal law, 42 U.S.C. Section 3604(b).² Under the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act, the same anti-discrimination duty applies at the state level, enforced by the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, and boards should recognize that a neutral rule excluding observant adherents creates disparate-impact exposure — Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act, Section 34-37-1 et seq.⁶ These obligations apply to all Rhode Island associations, including any the express statute doesn't reach.

C. Holiday-decoration and rule-drafting obligations

Decoration policies should account for multiple faith calendars rather than a single tradition, and display and architectural rules should be facially neutral as to religion, avoid naming specific symbols, and stay drafted to fit within the express statute's permitted limits on size, location, health and safety, and non-discrimination — Rhode Island express statute, Section 34-37-5.5(b); CC&Rs.¹

D. Notice, hearing, and enforcement obligations

Before fining a resident or compelling removal of a display, an association must follow its notice and hearing procedure under the declaration and, for condominiums, Section 34-36.1-3.20, which requires notice and an opportunity for a hearing before a fine is imposed and assessed — Condominium Act, Section 34-36.1-3.20.⁸ A defective process compounds both statutory and fair-housing exposure. The Fair Housing Act and the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act apply to all Rhode Island associations regardless of community type, so a community outside the express statute isn't free of religious-display obligations.²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill in the Rhode Island General Assembly's 2024, 2025, or 2026 sessions would amend Section 34-37-5.5 or otherwise govern religious displays in community associations. The controlling statute dates to 2015, and that enactment is the background of the current law rather than activity within the recent window.

B. Recent rulings

No Rhode Island Supreme Court, Rhode Island Superior Court, U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, or First Circuit decision within the past 36 months has interpreted Section 34-37-5.5 or addressed religious-display enforcement by a Rhode Island association. Because Rhode Island has no intermediate appellate court, any state appeal would run from the Superior Court directly to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Because the Fair Housing Act is a federal statute, federal claims would proceed through the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to the First Circuit. The leading door-display authority remains the Seventh Circuit's decision in Bloch v. Frischholz, persuasive, not binding, in the First Circuit.⁴

C. Active legislative debates

At least eight states have enacted express religious-display statutes, most within the past fifteen years, and Rhode Island's 2015 law is among the models cited in that national trend. Nevada is the most recent to join the group, adding NRS 116.323 through Senate Bill 201 in the 2025 session, effective July 1, 2025.⁹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Rhode Island sits in the minority of states with a display-specific statute expressly barring associations from prohibiting religious items on doors and doorframes — a group that includes California, Civil Code Section 4706, added by SB 652, effective January 1, 2020, Colorado, C.R.S. Section 38-33.3-106.5, Connecticut, General Statutes Section 47-230a, Florida, Statutes Section 718.113(6), for condominiums, Illinois, 765 ILCS 605/18.4(h), for condominiums, Nevada, NRS 116.323, effective July 1, 2025, Rhode Island, R.I. Gen. Laws Section 34-37-5.5, and Texas, Property Code Section 202.018, added by HB 1278 in 2011 and expanded by SB 1588 in 2021.⁹ The majority of states have no such statute, and there the Fair Housing Act and state fair housing law govern. For multi-state operators, the practical implication is that the Fair Housing Act floor is uniform nationwide, while Rhode Island adds an express door-and-doorframe rule located in its fair housing chapter rather than its condominium statute. Rhode Island's 2015 statute is among those other states have looked to as a model for later enactments.

This coverage updates quarterly as the legislature, the Rhode Island courts, and the federal courts act. The federal Fair Housing Act is the operative federal framework for this topic, and other federal frameworks — the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule — also apply to Rhode Island associations.

Footnotes

1. R.I. Gen. Laws Section 34-37-5.5, Freedom of condominium owners and apartment renters to display certain religious items ↩
2. 42 U.S.C. Section 3604, Discrimination in the sale or rental of housing and other prohibited practices ↩
3. Texas Dept. of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., 576 U.S. 519 (2015) ↩
4. Bloch v. Frischholz, 587 F.3d 771 (7th Cir. 2009) (en banc) ↩
5. 24 C.F.R. Section 100.600, Quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment ↩
6. Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, About Us (enforcement of R.I.G.L. Section 34-37-1 et seq., Fair Housing Practices Act) ↩
7. R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 34-36.1, Condominium Law (see Section 34-36.1-1.02, Applicability) ↩
8. R.I. Gen. Laws Section 34-36.1-3.20, Enforcement of declaration, by-laws and rules ↩
9. Sister-state religious-display statutes, including Texas Property Code Section 202.018 (added 2011, expanded 2021) ↩