Title: Zoning Laws | The First Amendment Encyclopedia
Headings: The First Amendment Encyclopedia
The First Amendment Encyclopedia
Zoning Laws
By David Schultz (Updated September 2017 by David L. Hudson Jr.)
Burdensome, arbitrary and discriminatory zoning laws have been struck down
First Amendment challenges to zoning often deal with adult entertainment
Court has upheld zoning laws under secondary effects doctrine
Court has upheld zoning laws meant to regulate neighborhood activity

Content: For example, a community may wish to zone some areas for residential homes and others for manufacturing to prevent a factory from being built in the middle of an area full of homes. In Buchanan v. Warley (1917), the Court struck down a city law segregating neighborhoods by race as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, effectively making it unconstitutional to use zoning for racially discriminatory purposes. However, in Eucid v. Ambler Reality (1926) the U.S. Supreme Court upheld zoning as a valid use of a state or local government’s police power. Individuals have also successfully challenged zoning laws that were so onerous or burdensome that they effected an uncompensated taking of property contrary to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court has also overturned zoning laws when governments have imposed them in an arbitrary or capricious fashion, and plaintiffs may challenge zoning laws under the First Amendment when governments use such laws to suppress free expression. First Amendment challenges to zoning often deal with adult entertainment
First Amendment challenges most often arise when governments use zoning to regulate certain types of business establishments such as those engaged in adult entertainment. This might include businesses where nude or semi-nude dancing occurs, where adult movies are shown or sold, or where sexually orientated products are sold. The rationale that city officials use is called the secondary effects doctrine. Under this doctrine, city officials do not regulate adult businesses because they engage in offensive, unpopular expression, but because the businesses cause adverse secondary effects, such as increased crime and decreased property values. Communities have attempted to use zoning laws to prevent adult entertainment businesses from operating within their borders.