Jews have no right to put up Mezuzahs in the USA.
July 11th, 2008 . by AaronThat is what the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week. The ruling came in a case where Lynne Bloch of Chicago, put up a Mezuzah on the door to her condo. The home owners association at Shoreline Towers said that it was a violation of their rule against displaying items on the doors in the hallway. It seems that a game of cat and mouse followed with the association removing the Mezuzah and Ms. Bloch replacing it and so on. The jist of the decision was that the association has the right to make rules of this sort, as long as the are not specific to any religion. You can read more about the decision here and here.
My question is, why can’t a home owners association in say a gated community do the same thing? They would essentially be able to make a no Jews allowed rule in this way. You can almost understand the logic in a condo where the association maintains the hallways and they are saying that they want a uniform look etc. But the fact is that when you live in a gated community or even in many planned communities, there is also a home owners association that tells you which colors you can paint your house and how tall you can let your grass grow etc. I would love to hear the opinion of some lawyers out there if they think that this ruling could also apply to the communities that I mentioned.
