Attorney General Matt Platkin has told a federal judge that New Jersey’s county organization line is unconstitutional, and he is not prepared to defend it in court, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.
Platkin sent a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi saying his office will not intervene in a lawsuit filed by Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown).
“The attorney general will not otherwise provide a defense of the challenged statutes on the merits in that case,” the attorney general’s office told Quraishi.
“A central reason for the attorney general’s defense of state statutes is to implement the will of the democratic process that enacted them, but as explained above, subsequent court decisions and practices on the ground have overtaken the Legislature’s original intent in enacting the challenged state statutes,” the AG’s office said. “The traditional need for the Attorney General to defend the results of the democratic process does not apply neatly to a case where the plaintiffs produced substantial record evidence to challenge the statutes as undermining the democratic process.”
In his brief, the AG’s office said that “New Jersey stands alone across the nation in the use of bracketing for primary-election machine ballots, which further undermines the claim that these laws are necessary to advance the government interests on which the attorney general would have relied.”
“No official that the attorney general represents in court implements these laws, so there is no risk that any state agencies would simultaneously be enforcing but declining to defend a particular statute,” the AG’s office said. “This court has made clear in its prior decisions that the constitutional question at issue turns on the evidence. The attorney general has concluded that the evidence presented does not support a defense of the constitutionality of these statutes.”
His move does not necessarily mean that Quraishi will abolish the line system, but it could give the judge plenty of cover if he does.
Ending the line comes at a terrible time for Tammy Murphy, who is depending on organization endorsements from large Democratic counties, including Bergen, Essex, Camden, Middlesex, and Hudson, to defeat Kim in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary.
Mahen Gunaratna, a spokesman for Gov. Phil Murphy, said the governor disagrees with Platkin.
“Outside the context of any campaign, Governor Murphy has consistently and accurately noted that the bracketing of candidates is permitted by duly enacted laws that have been on the books for decades. It is well-established that Attorneys General have a general obligation to defend the constitutionality of statutes, regardless of their own personal views,” Gunaratna said. “The Governor believes that a legal defense of the statute permitting bracketing would have been appropriate and consistent with the actions of prior Attorneys General.”
Quraishi has a hearing scheduled for the online lawsuit tomorrow morning. It’s unclear if he will issue an immediate decision before the March 25 filing deadline or before the primary election. He’s on an extraordinarily tight deadline for 2024 unless he also orders moving the primary election to later in June or July. Still, he could reject Kim’s lawsuit entirely.
In that conference, Quraishi appeared firm in his direction that lawyers be prepared to argue why it’s too late in the process to change to office block voting in time for the June 4 primary election.
As attorney general, Platkin had 60 days from Kim’s filing to intervene. At a conference two weeks ago between Quraishi and attorneys in the case, Deputy Solicitor General Angela Cai said the state had not decided whether to intervene.
In 2021, then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal intervened in a sister case filed by progressive groups and unsuccessful congressional candidates.
But the attorney general’s office will now move to withdraw as an intervenor.
This story was updated at 4:45 PM and at 4:59 P