The Background and Significance of Mount Laurel II {Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel, 456 A.2d 390 (N.J.)}

There has always been a strong strain in American culture emphasizing equal treatment before the law; it is a recurrent strain, and one that will not go away. From one viewpoint, American history may be viewed as one long story of how this concern has eventually vanquished contrary public policies. Yet the process has often been agonizingly slow. Take for example the story of equal access to land and housing: public enforcement of private racial covenants survived for thirty years after racial zoning was held unconstitutional, and for a similar period restrictions upon land ownership by aliens were constitutional