ABSTRACT
In Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas, 416 US 1, the US Supreme Court upheld the right of local governments to enact ordinances that have the effect of defining what constitutes a "single family" and of limiting the number of persons unrelated by blood or marriage who may live together in a single residence. A number of state courts, interpreting their own state constitutions, have given a broader definition to "family unit," so as to include more than two unrelated individuals. Belle Terre arose when a group of unrelated students from the State University of New York campus at Stony Brook rented a dwelling in a very small, exclusive neighborhood near the campus on Long Island. The principal issues Belle Terre raises, however, are whether limitations on the civil rights of individuals to associate freely constitute a violation of the right to privacy or of the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment.
