Ohio Senate passes a bill that prevents HOAs and landlords from prohibiting pro-police flags

The state Senate unanimously passed a bill that could prevent landlords and homeowner associations from prohibiting residents from displaying thin blue line flags in support of police officers near their homes.

Senate Bill 202, which state Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, sponsored, passed the state Senate on May 13 and now moves to the state House for further consideration. If it passes the state House, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine will decide whether to sign it.

The bill would ensure that HOAs, condominium associations, landlords, mobile home parks, and other places where people live cannot prevent a person from displaying the thin blue line flag by adding the flag to the list of other flags that are already protected by the state law, such as the American flag, the State of Ohio flag, the POW/MIA flag, and other military flags, according to NBC 4.

“This is a case where we should do everything in our power to console these families and allow them to honor those who protect and serve our communities and, in this case, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty,” Schaffer said during a February hearing.

Schaffer’s bill, named the Chief Steven DiSario Act, to honor a 36-year-old law enforcement officer at the Kirkersville Police Department who was killed by an armed man while he was on duty in 2017, would protect the display of the black-and-white American flag with a blue horizontal stripe on a flagpole, in a window, and through the use of a bracket.

Tom DiSario, Steven DiSario’s father, convinced Schaffer to introduce the bill after his HOA demanded in 2022 that he take down a thin blue line flag that he received at his son’s funeral. The flag had flown since 2017, with no demands to remove it until 2022, according to NBC 4.

“Our officers put their lives on the line for us every single day, much like the members of our military,” Tom DiSario said in written testimony for a March hearing. “When they sacrifice their lives for the betterment of their community, the families, friends, and fellow members of that community should be allowed to fly the thin blue line flag in their honor.”

The bill introduced in May 2025 is a companion to House Bill 74, introduced in February 2025 by state Reps. Kevin Miller, R-Newark, and Sean Brennan, D-Parma, which was not passed by Ohio lawmakers.

Miller introduced similar bills both in 2022 and 2023, but none of them reached DeWine’s desk, according to NBC 4.

Gary Daniels, a lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, however, opposed the bill, testifying against it at a May 3 hearing, where he argued that it “protects and addresses only one type of expression.”

“On the micro level, it fails to provide identical protections for speech representing different perspectives on law enforcement,” Daniels said in his testimony. “SB 202’s too narrow scope is what makes it constitutionally problematic.”

Even though he ultimately voted for the bill, state Sen. Bill DeMore, D-Columbus, still criticized it, alleging that it doesn’t fully protect every form of expression protected by the First Amendment.

“I only wish this bill actually took a broad stance to fight for everyone’s First Amendment rights,” he said, according to the news source. “Why is it OK for HOAs to ban the thin red line flag honoring firefighters, or flags to honor the troops, or the Pride flag?”