LINN VALLEY LAKES PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION, a Kansas Corporation, Appellant, v. WILBUR N. BROCKWAY and LOIS I. BROCKWAY, Appellees, 814 P.2d 456

Summary

Among the many restrictive covenants and restrictions burdening the property owners' lot was an absolute prohibition on signs; nevertheless, the property owners placed a "for sale" sign in the window of their home in order to sell their lot. The court rejected the property owners' contention that the enforcement of the restrictive covenant by a court would constitute state action and therefore violate their First Amendment right of free speech. The court distinguished a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the action of state courts and judicial officers in their official capacities was regarded as state action, thus banning the enforcement of racially restrictive residential covenants entered into by private parties. The key determination in that case was not whether state courts were empowered to enforce restrictive covenants, but rather the larger and weightier question of whether a state court could enforce a restrictive covenant based on color. In the property owners' case, the ...