From our private database of 44,600+ case briefs, written and edited by humans—never with AI.
State v. Baker
Supreme Court of New Jersey
405 A.2d 368 (N.J. 1979)
Facts
Dennis Baker (defendant) owns a house in Plainfield, New Jersey. The house lies within a zone restricted to habitation by single families. The zoning ordinance provides that groups of more than four unrelated adults are not families. Baker lives in the house with his wife and their three children, along with an unrelated woman and her three children. The nine people view each other as an extended family, and eat and pray together. They all contribute to the household expenses. On three occasions in 1976, the State of New Jersey (plaintiff) charged Baker with violating the zoning ordinance, and he was convicted each time. Baker then appealed his convictions to the state supreme court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Pashman, J.)
Dissent (Mountain, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 710,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 44,600 briefs, keyed to 983 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
