City of Edmonds v. Oxford House, Inc.
United States Supreme Court
514 U.S. 725 (1995)
Edmonds' (defendant) zoning ordinance allowed any number of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption to live together in a single-family home, or up to five unrelated people; Oxford House (plaintiff) opened a group home there for recovering addicts and alcoholics, agreed by both parties to be handicapped under the Fair Housing Act, and received zoning citations. Oxford sued to challenge the citations; the district court found the ordinance's family definition exempt under the FHA's maximum-occupancy exemption, but the Ninth Circuit reversed, and Edmonds sought certiorari.
Whether an ordinance attempting to set maximum occupancy by regulating who may live in a single-family home qualifies as an exemption under § 3607(b)(1) of the Fair Housing Act.