Mount Laurel at 50: New Jersey’s Blueprint for Dismantling Residential Segregation 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most consequential state court rulings in U.S. housing law. In 1975, the New Jersey Supreme Court established a groundbreaking principle: Municipalities cannot use zoning laws to exclude low- and moderate-income families from living within their borders. 

Today, the policy framework that emerged from that case, Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mount Laurel Township, is a more powerful force than ever in shaping housing policy in New Jersey. Increasingly, it is also a model for reform across the country.

By outlawing exclusionary zoning and affirming that every municipality in New Jersey has a constitutional obligation to create its “fair share” of affordable housing, Mount Laurel directly confronted the use of land-use policy as a tool of racial and economic segregation.

But the story of Mount Laurel also offers a sobering lesson about the limits of legal rulings. It has taken 50 years of relentless advocacy, continuous litigation, and painstaking political progress to create what has become the strongest policy in the country to require affordable homes in historically exclusionary communities.

Zoning as a Tool of Segregation

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down explicit racial zoning laws in Buchanan v. Warley in 1917, local governments began using facially neutral land use policies — like large-lot zoning and minimum square footage requirements — to achieve similar exclusionary ends. Those tools allowed municipalities to shape who could afford to live in their communities, often by prohibiting the construction of multifamily housing and smaller, more affordable housing types. Over time, exclusionary zoning became a central mechanism for perpetuating segregation across the United States.

That was precisely the dynamic at play in the South Jersey suburb of Mount Laurel in the early 1970s. As Mount Laurel experienced an influx of wealthier white people, the town’s centuries-old Black community was priced out. In response, local community members — led by Ethel R. Lawrence, known as the “Rosa Parks of affordable housing” — spearheaded efforts to create 36 affordable homes. 

To the community’s dismay, the zoning board blocked their efforts to build affordable housing. Rather than backing down, they joined forces with the Southern Burlington NAACP, the Camden County NAACP, and lawyers from the legal services office in Camden. Together, these community leaders and lawyers filed litigation against Mount Laurel and won an astonishing victory affirming that every municipality in New Jersey must facilitate the production of its “fair share” of affordable housing.

A few months after the decision came down, the advocates who brought the lawsuit founded our organization, Fair Share Housing Center, to bring the promise of Mount Laurel to reality.

From Legal Victory to Political Reality

The success of the Mount Laurel framework is predicated on strong enforcement by the courts and state government — which hasn’t always been the case. In the decades following the decision, many towns resisted compliance, used litigation to delay enforcement, or sought ways to circumvent their housing obligations. 

The Mount Laurel II ruling in 1983, which further established the specifics of what has become known as the Mount Laurel doctrine, led to production of tens of thousands of affordable homes in the 1980s and 1990s. 

But from the late 1990s to 2015, state leaders obstructed implementation of the Mount Laurel doctrine, leading to enormous gaps in housing supply that the state is still working to catch up with. Affordable housing in New Jersey reached its nadir under Gov. Chris Christie (R), who served as governor from 2010 and 2018 and fought tooth and nail to undermine the Mount Laurel doctrine.

Finally, in 2015 the New Jersey Supreme Court reinvigorated enforcement of the doctrine in the Mount Laurel IV case. After 15 years of non-enforcement by state agencies, New Jersey’s highest court held that the judicial system would be responsible for municipal compliance.

Since then, New Jersey has seen a boom in multifamily housing — creating over 25,000 affordable homes since 2015 alone. Much of this new housing is strategically located near public transportation and redevelops obsolete office parks and shopping centers.

Historically, the Mount Laurel doctrine was upheld primarily through judicial intervention. New Jersey’s landmark 2024 affordable housing law, driven by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and legislative leadership, signaled a significant shift in the political landscape of affordable housing.

The new law adds teeth to the Mount Laurel framework by setting clear enforcement mechanisms for towns’ affordable housing obligations over the next decade, thus making it harder for affluent towns to block new developments. By codifying the methodology used to determine how much new affordable housing each municipality is required to allow, it streamlines the development process for everyone involved.

The law gives towns a wide variety of tools to create affordable housing in the way they prefer. Municipalities can choose from a range of options — such as 100 percent affordable housing, mixed-income housing, supportive housing for seniors or people with disabilities, or repurposing abandoned malls or offices. 

There are also strict income restrictions that towns must follow to ensure that affordable homes are truly affordable. At least 50 percent of homes must be affordable to low-income residents (who earn below 50 percent of the area median income) and at least 13 percent of homes must be set aside for very low-income residents (who earn below 30 percent of the area median income). The remainder must be affordable to moderate-income residents who earn 50 percent to 80 percent of the area median income.

Thanks to the new law, the vast majority of municipalities in New Jersey are now creating affordable homes — far more than any time in the 50-year history of the Mount Laurel framework.

Mount Laurel’s National Relevance

As the United States faces a worsening housing affordability crisis, many states are revisiting their land use laws. California, Florida, Massachusetts, Montana, and Texas have recently enacted reforms that incorporate elements of New Jersey’s model. Massachusetts, for example, requires certain communities near transit to zone for multifamily housing, while allowing developers to override local zoning rules to build affordable units in municipalities with less than 10 percent affordable housing.

What distinguishes New Jersey is not only the breadth of its affordable housing requirements — which apply to every single municipality — but the fact that those obligations have evolved through five decades of judicial enforcement, community organizing, and policy development. And thanks to New Jersey’s new affordable housing law, the state now has a structure in which courts, advocates, and state agencies all have clear roles in ensuring compliance.

Today, more than 400,000 New Jerseyans live in homes created through the Mount Laurel doctrine. Fifty years after the original ruling, it stands as one of the most durable and impactful examples of state constitutional law being used to confront structural inequality. It has opened the doors of exclusionary communities and positioned New Jersey as a national leader in housing policy.

The story of Mount Laurel underscores the critical role state courts can play in promoting civil rights. While federal courts have become more constrained in recent decades, state constitutions — and state judiciaries — offer vital avenues for advancing racial and economic justice.

For other states looking to tackle the housing crisis, the Mount Laurel doctrine offers a compelling model — not only for what courts can require, but for what long-term political engagement can achieve.

The lesson is clear: Legal victories matter, but without sustained enforcement, they fade into oblivion. The Mount Laurel doctrine endures because it has been defended, refined, and now legislated into the fabric of New Jersey.

Jag Davies is the director of communications for the Fair Share Housing Center, located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The organization is currently leading efforts to implement the state’s new affordable housing law.

Suggested Citation: Jag Davies, Mount Laurel at 50: New Jersey’s Blueprint for Dismantling Residential Segregation, Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (Sept. 2, 2025), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/mount-laurel-50-new-jerseys-blueprint-dismantling-residential-segregation