Suburbs under siege : race, space, and audacious judges / Charles M. Haar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Haar, Charles M. (Charles Monroe), 1920-2012, author.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library ; 328

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Discrimination in housing--Law and legislation--United States.

Discrimination in housing.

Land use--Law and legislation--United States.

Land use.

Courts--United States.

Courts.

Social justice--United States.

Social justice.

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (281 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1996]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Suburbs under Siege Charles Haar argues passionately that all people--rich or poor, black or white--have a constitutional right to live in the suburbs and that a socially responsible judiciary should vigorously uphold that right. For various reasons, American courts have generally failed to question local zoning regulations that trap the urban poor in the squalor of inner cities, away from decent housing and jobs in the suburbs. No U.S. Supreme Court case, for instance, has confronted exclusionary zoning rules, as Brown v. Board of Education once attacked school segregation. Instead, judges at all levels have most often reinforced the residential segregation that may well destroy American society. In this provocative book on the landmark Mount Laurel cases, Haar shows how the N.J. state judiciary broke out of this pattern of judicial behavior. These courageous, innovative judges attracted nationwide attention by challenging the forces of affluence that ruled the suburbs (and the legislature) of their state. Furthermore, they based their reasoning on the N.J. state constitution in order to protect their rulings from invalidation by the U.S. Supreme Court.In the early 1970s, when the cases began, the plaintiffs, Ethel Lawrence and her daughter Thomasene, were barely making ends meet in the Philadelphia suburb of Mount Laurel, a town where their African-American ancestors had lived for seven generations. The Lawrences' dream was to live in a Mount Laurel garden apartment planned by a grassroots reform group as affordable housing: in their way stood a typical minimum acreage zoning ordinance. The eventual court victory of the Lawrences and their young public interest attorneys inspired other N.J. suits and a process of remediation that continues to this day, as judges, experts (special masters), the state legislature, and other citizens work to carry out the Mount Laurel principles. Haar's book is a bold attack on conventional doctrines of the separation of powers limitations on the judicial branch and a plea that judges across the country assume their proper responsibilities for fair housing before it is too late.Originally published in 1996.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Prologue. A NATION OF SUBURBS

I. Breaking New Ground: The Role of the Courts in Social Change

Part I. CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE

II. Launching the Mount Laurel Doctrine: "Pack Up and Move to Camden!"

III. The View from the Mount

IV. Judges into the Fray

V. Of Special Masters and the Front Line

PART II: AN UNEASY TRIUMPH

VI. The Legislature Strikes Back . . .

VII. ... And the Judiciary Responds: Holmdel and Warren

PART III: INSTITUTIONAL REFORM THROUGH THE COURTS

VIII. The New World of Judicial Remedies

IX. Discretion and Its Discontents: Checking Abuses

PART IV: THE LEGACY

X. Leadership in Institutional Reform: Rallying Support for a Vision

XI. The Last Recourse: Why Judges Intervene

XII. National Ramifications: Judges as Social Innovators

Notes

Acknowledgments

Picture Credits

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-252) and index.

ISBN:

0-691-63454-8

0-691-60560-2

0-691-00241-X

1-4008-6426-7

OCLC:

889250893