Community group must honor rights:
A state appellate court ruled that homeowners' associations have to recognize free speech.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

TRENTON - A state appeals court ruled yesterday that homeowners' associations must recognize rights to freedom of speech under the New Jersey Constitution.

The three-judge panel unanimously backed residents of the private Twin Rivers community in East Windsor who sued their homeowners' association to be able to put political signs on their lawns, to have equal access to a newspaper run by the community's board of trustees, and to meet in a community room. Frank Askin, a Rutgers University Law School professor and lead counsel for the Committee for a Better Twin Rivers, said the appellate court was the first to rule that such private communities were "constitutional actors" and must respect members' freedom of speech. "The court recognized that, just like shopping malls are the new public square, these associations have become and act, for all practical purposes, like municipal entities unto themselves," he said in a statement. The case had been dismissed by a state Superior Court judge. The appellate panel said: "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."