Civil Rights and the Public Good. The arguments from consent are further undermined by consideration of the wider public consequences likely to flow from permitting residential associations to ignore fourteenth amendment norms. Residential covenants effectively waiving liberties of constitutional magnitude should not be enforceable because the creation of illiberal enclaves in which the exercise of civil rights is burdened with onerous sanctions threatens the broader political communities of the city, the state, and the nation. An illiberal enclave xxxxx the process of government in the larger polity because it diminishes or distorts the role in this process of those within the enclave.55 For example, the existence of illiberal regulations may discourage a member's recognition of her power to participate outside the association; the association may limit its members' access to information and discussion about political issues in the broader society; and the association may attempt to use quasi-governmental powers to influence individual members of the association to support particular political programs outside the association. The Supreme Court's incorporation of the most significant provisions of the Bill of Rights into the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment reflects the need for national uniformity in the enforcement of basic constitutional standards. Incorporation may be justified on the ground that local obstruction of civil rights may pose as great a threat to the political process in the state and the nation as does obstruction of civil rights by the federal government. The power of a municipal police force could prove a greater threat to free congressional elections than the power of the F.B.I.; local regulation of speech in public places may over time hinder national political debate as severely as might a president's attempt to restrain the publication of news. A residential association may exercise jurisdiction over its members' homes and may control significant public forums, such as parks and roads. There is no reason to assume that the powers of larger residential associations are less of a threat to the political life of the region, state, or nation than is the power of a typical municipality. Nor should government assume that residential associations of any size present less of a threat to the politics of the city than an illiberal state presents to the nation.
