Most of the homeowners asked the Commission to adopt a "family" definition upheld by a United States Supreme Court decision in Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas in 1974. The Supreme Court concluded that rights of individuals under the federal Constitution are not violated when a city prohibits more than two unrelated people from occupying a home in a single-family residential zone.
Although this precedent may preclude a federal lawsuit, groups of three or more people who are pushed out or prohibited from living together in "single family" zones have other legal arguments they can advance. They can claim, perhaps successfully, that an unduly restrictive definition of "family" violates their rights to privacy or liberty or equal protection of the law, as guaranteed by their state Constitution.
