Texas governor signs mezuzah law

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed a law that would require homeowner associations to permit religious displays on residents’ doors, including mezuzot.

Perry signed the bill at the end of the Texas legislative session on June 17; it reportedly had been unclear whether he would sign the new law.

According to the law, the religious item must be under 25 inches and remain in the doorway.

The law was introduced after a Conservative Jewish couple was ordered to remove a mezuzah from the door of their rental apartment and then fined when they refused. The couple sued to be allowed to keep the mezuzah up and lost; they moved from the building when their lease was up. They then turned to Houston Rep. Garnet Coleman to help push the bill through the Texas legislature to prevent the same thing from happening to others, according to the Houston Chronicle.

In 2008, Florida’s state Legislature passed a similar bill.