Boundaries of Exclusion

This article is a story about boundaries and exclusion and about how - or whether - there is a community based right to exclude nonresidents. The right of the individual to own property, to defend that property and to exclude others from entering that property are sticks in the bundle of rights enshrined in US property law. The limitations on that exclusion are determined by the creation of a legally defined property line that bounds these rights. That part of our story is relatively straightforward. However, we do not live our lives in isolation. We surround ourselves with a chosen community that, in large part, serves as a reflection of self-identity. So, to take this one step further, the complexity grows when we raise the questions of if, when and how a community (i.e., a group of individuals bound together by owning property in the same political jurisdiction) can exercise the same type of property rights, particularly the right to exclude which would prohibit entry for non-residents