Communes Go to Court

Q. When is a family not a family?

A. When it is a commune.

So U.S. District Court Judge Albert Wollenberg seems to think. Last year 14 young people, living together as two "voluntary" families, brought suit in Wollenberg's court to stop Palo Alto. Calif., authorities from "harassing" them with local zoning laws. Those laws specify that in two particular areas of the town, no home may be occupied by more than four people not in the same family. The two groups argued that since they considered themselves families, they were protected by an "emanation" of the constitutional right to freedom of association. They also claimed that distinguishing between them and more traditional families violated the 14th Amendment's equal-protection and due process clauses.

In his decision, Judge Wollenberg did not accept their "emanation," though he was not immune to their vibrations. As he saw it, "There is a long-recognized value in the traditional family relationship which does not attach to the 'voluntary family.' " Reinforced by biological and legal ties, the family "plays a role in educating and nourishing the young; it has been a means, for uncounted millennia, of satisfying the deepest emotional and physical needs of human beings." The judge was impressed by the sincerity of the families' members, but he found that "communal living groups are voluntary, with fluctuating memberships who have no legal obligations of support or cohabitation."

Fascinating Questions. Communes, the judge concluded, "are legally indistinguishable from such traditional living groups as religious communities and residence clubs. The right to form such groups may be constitutionally protected, but the right to insist that these groups live under the same roof in any part of the city they choose is not."

Given the spread of new experiments in family styles, the decision suggests that other judges may soon face some fascinating questions. Are adult commune members entitled, for example, to file joint tax returns, to military dependents' allowances and Social Security survivor benefits? In light of the Palo Alto decision, the answer is that the family that only stays together will not have a prayer in court. But there may be a way for communes to get around single-family zoning and other legal problems. One or two members of a commune might try to adopt the rest --at least on paper--and then all of them could stay put as a regular family in full compliance with the law.

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