Cite as: 514 U. S. 725 (1995)
Thomas, J., dissenting
ber of occupants without establishing an absolute maximum number in all cases.2
I would apply § 3607(b)(1) as it is written. Because petitioner's zoning code imposes a qualified "restrictio[n] regarding the maximum number of occupants permitted to occupy a dwelling," and because the statute exempts from the FHA "any" such restrictions, I would reverse the Ninth Circuit's holding that the exemption does not apply in this case.3
II
The majority's failure to ask the right question about petitioner's zoning code results from a more fundamental error in focusing on "maximum occupancy restrictions" and "family composition rules." See generally ante, at 731-734. These two terms—and the two categories of zoning rules they describe—are simply irrelevant to this case.
2 It is ironic that the majority cites Uniform Housing Code § 503(b) (1988), which has been incorporated into petitioner's zoning code, see ECDC § 19.10.000, App. 248, as a "prototypical maximum occupancy restriction" that would qualify for § 3607(b)(1)'s exemption. Ante, at 736. Because § 503(b), as the majority describes it, "caps the number of occupants a dwelling may house, based on floor area," ibid. (emphasis added), it actually caps the density of occupants, not their number. By itself, therefore, § 503(b) "surely does not answer the question: 'What is the maximum number of occupants permitted to occupy a house?' " Ibid. That is, even under § 503(b), there is no single absolute maximum number of occupants that applies to every house in Edmonds. Thus, the answer to the majority's question is the same with respect to both § 503(b) and ECDC § 21.30.010: "It depends." With respect to the former, it depends on the size of the house's bedrooms, see ante, at 736 (quoting § 503(b)); with respect to the latter, it depends on whether the house's occupants are related.
3 I would also remand the case to the Court of Appeals to allow it to pass on respondents' argument that petitioner's zoning code does not satisfy § 3607(b)(1)'s requirement that qualifying restrictions be "reasonable." The District Court rejected this argument, concluding that petitioner's "five-unrelated-person limit is reasonable as a matter of law," App. to Pet. for Cert. B-10, but the Court of Appeals did not address the issue.
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