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Belle Terre V. Boraas, Stewart Goldstein

Cleveland State Law Review

On April 1, 1974, the Supreme Court announced its opinion in the first zoning case of constitutional dimensions that the Court had decided in the last forty-six years. In sustaining the ordinance of the Village of Belle Terre, with its restrictive definition of "family," the Court reaffirmed its respect for the lines drawn by legislatures in the area of zoning and equal protection. The Belle Terre decision reaffirmed the validity of one municipality's mechanism for preserving the style of life of its inhabitants, free from exposure to one element of the counterculture, the voluntary cooperative association of unrelated persons: the …