New Jersey Extends Free Speech Protection to Feuding Neighborhoods

We found the following news item. It concerns us because it concerns the expansion of Free Speech. We're banning it from being read by employees of Rominger Legal. It is well known that too much information and discourse leads to ideas and free thinking. Soon the employees will think they deserve a "bulletin board" (or god forbid, the right to be treated well). Then some rabble rouser will start posting job notices, and the employees will learn that other places pay more, have better benefits, and less hours. Can't have that.

Court: Homeowners associations must bow to state free speech law
February 7, 2006, 6:02 PM EST
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ A state appeals court panel ruled Tuesday that homeowners associations must recognize residents' rights to freedom of speech under the New Jersey Constitution. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel stemmed from a case brought by residents of the private Twin Rivers community in East Windsor, who had sued their homeowners association to be able to put political signs on their front lawns, among other things.

"For the first time anywhere in the United States, an appellate court has ruled that such private communities are `constitutional actors' and must therefore respect their members' freedom of speech," said Frank Askin, a Rutgers Law School professor and lead counsel for the Committee for a Better Twin Rivers....

...The case had initially been dismissed by a state Superior Court judge. Tuesday's ruling overturned that decision. "Expressive exercises, especially those bearing upon real and legitimate community issues, should not be silenced or subject to undue limitation because of changes in residential relationships, such as where lifestyle issues are governed or administered by community associations in addition to being regulated by governmental entities," the ruling said in part.

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