Keeping old, dumb laws on the books is dangerous

January 24, 2016

Some laws on the books make no sense.

What do we do with them? Just ignore them? Well, sure, in some cases, but, you never know when someone may decide to arrest you for detaining a homing pigeon or failing to audibly signal your intention to pass another vehicle (and not one drawn by a horse — until recently, that wasn’t allowed) or dancing on Main Street, and even worse, dancing in shorts, in Caldwell, N.J. — yes, Caldwell. These prohibitions have been sitting, unchallenged, as New Jersey laws. 

Gov. Chris Christie agreed with the Legislature to repeal these particular laws, but how do we come to know about laws that need change?  In New Jersey, fortunately, we have the New Jersey Commission of Law Revision that, since 1987, has been about the good work of identifying statutes that are obsolete, inconsistent with federal law, silly and unnecessary and some that are necessary but need revision or updating.

Opinon, Linda Stamato on NJ.com, January 23

Recent Posts

NJSPL Report: Analyzing the Use and Equity of ARPA Funds

Report Release: Analyzing the Use and Equity of ARPA Funds in NJ Local Governments and Beyond New Jersey State Policy Lab The American Rescue Plan Act’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (ARPA-SLFRF) represent a historic $350 billion investment to...

Dr. Grafova Presented Posters from the VSR Research

Dr. Irina Grafova recently returned from the AcademyHealth Research Meeting in Minneapolis, where she had the opportunity to present two posters from the Virtual Schwartz Rounds emotional support program for nurses, run by the New Jersey Nursing Emotional Well-being...

Heldrich Report: Analysis of NJ Life Sciences, Tech Sectors

The Heldrich Center, in conjunction with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), is pleased to share a new workforce analysis of the life sciences and technology sectors in New Jersey, with a particular emphasis on the sectors’ intersection with...

Restrepo-Mieth Researches Tree Inventories in Galápagos, Ecuador

Who wants a tree inventory and why? The politics of inventorying urban forestry in Galápagos, Ecuador Abstract Trees make significant contributions to the urban experience by providing ecosystem services and aesthetic value. Considering these contributions, cities are...

NJSPL: Georeferencing Historical Maps for Geospatial Analysis

New Jersey State Policy Lab, Jonathan DeLura Our project to create a dataset of historical water bodies in New Jersey began by finding maps of historical water bodies. Two atlases were used to locate historical water bodies in New Jersey. The first was Atlas of the...