Southern Burlington NAACP v. Mount Laurel

1983

Venue: NJ SC

Facts: Mount Laurel is zoned so that low-income outsiders can't move in (i.e., large lots, minimum square footage). This has a disporportionate impact.

Posture: This is Mount Laurel II: no substantive action has happened in the last 8 years.

Issue: Discriminatory land use.

Holding: Municipal land use regulations that conflict with the general welfare [...] abuse police power and are unconstitutional.

Rule: We are going to retain jurisdiction in cases where a municipality has not taken action, and supervise effective zoning.

Reasoning: The public welfare is more than just the community at hand.

Dicta: We prefer legislative action to judicial action, but apparently nobody is doing anything. We want more than just the lowering of barriers: we want mandatory set-asides.