CRIMINAL LAW IN BERGEN AND PASSAIC COUNTIES: MEGAN'S LAW

Awhile ago, I posted a blog that identified a case decided by the New Jersey Supreme Court that prevented municipalities from implementing residency restrictions on sex offenders. The core of that decision was grounded upon principals of preemption.

Last week, the Assembly Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill to effectively overrule the Supreme Court's decision by empowering local authorities to restrict where sex offenders may live in their municipality. The bill will authorize exclusionary zoning around playgrounds, parks, schools and daycare centers. It will not require sex offenders under twenty-one (21) to relocate , however, if an area has been re-zoned. Nor, will the law effectively exclude residency throughout the town.

The legislative action has been hotly disputed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Defender's Office. These objectors have cited recent statistics from Iowa where similar local ordinances have produced a tracking problem for sex offenders because they will not register for fear of being ordered out of an exclusionary zone.

Criminal Law in Bergen County: Megan's Law can Preempt Local Ordinances

New Jersey's Megan Law was conceived to among other things, track the location of certain sex offenders.
For quite sometime now, various municipalities have enacted ordinances which have imposed greater restrictions on convicted sex offenders by impairing their ability to live within certain distances from parks, playgrounds, school and child care facilities.
A few weeks ago, a appellate court concluded that these ordinances were invalid because Megan's Law had pre-empted this area of the law.