NJ Civil Rights Lawsuit Accuses Jackson Of Bias In Zoning Rules

TRENTON, NJ — The New Jersey Attorney General's Office has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Jackson Township, accusing township officials of using zoning ordinances to deter Orthodox Jews from moving to the township.

The complaint alleges Jackson Township adopted zoning ordinances and enforcement practices that were discriminatory and were "motivated in part by officials’ desire to appease township residents who reacted to the township’s growing Orthodox Jewish population by expressing hate and fear on social media, in complaints to township officials, and in public meetings," the attorney general's office said.

"We’ve filed this lawsuit because bias and hate have no home in New Jersey, and we will not allow some vocal residents’ intolerance to drive local government decisions," Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said. "Like all public servants, municipal officials have a duty to uphold the law, not weaponize it against specific groups because of what they believe or how they worship. Today’s lawsuit should send that message to anyone in New Jersey who needs to hear it."

A telephone message left seeking comment from Jackson Township officials was not immediately returned.

The four-count lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Ocean County names as defendants Jackson Township, the Jackson Township Council, the Jackson Township Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Jackson Township Planning Board, and Mayor Michael Reina in his official capacity, the attorney general's office said.

In addition to the state lawsuit, Jackson is the defendant in a federal Justice Department lawsuit filed in May 2020 that alleges violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the Fair Housing Act, in zoning ordinances restricting religious schools and barring religious boarding schools.

Toms River Township officials recently reached a settlement with the Justice Department over the township's zoning practices involving houses of worship. Read more: Toms River Avoids DOJ Lawsuit, Amends Houses Of Worship Zoning

The federal lawsuit says the township passed ordinances banning dormitories throughout Jackson, making it impossible for religious boarding schools such as Orthodox Jewish yeshivas to operate there, but the Jackson planning board later approved, without requiring a variance, the plans for two nonreligious projects with dormitory-type housing.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by the state says the issues began in 2015, when "a vocal group of Jackson residents began complaining to local officials about an influx of Orthodox Jews into Jackson Township. Some residents have amplified their views in hateful social media posts, which have included statements like 'we need to get rid of them like Hitler did' and 'filthy f'ing cockroaches.' "

The complaint alleges some Jackson officials sympathized with residents' anger and fear that Jackson was "becoming a subdivision of Lakewood."

In response, officials devised plans to create and enforce rules that would stymie the religious observances of Orthodox Jews in Jackson and, as one former Zoning Board member said in a Facebook post, quell "the tsunami of orthodoxy that is mounting at the border."

The complaint cites four strategies authorities allege Jackson used to target aspects of Orthodox Jewish religious practice:

Jackson allegedly dedicated significant resources to targeted and discriminatory surveillance of the homes of Orthodox Jews suspected of hosting communal prayer gatherings. The monitoring, at the direction of Reina and others, continued even after officials warned that taxpayer funds and government resources were being wasted and that officials were not finding significant code violations, the state alleges. Reina is accused of saying that if these were churches instead of Orthodox Jewish places of worship, he would "absolutely not" be fighting them in the same manner. Jackson’s zoning code requires permits for places of worship, but there are constitutional limits on municipalities’ ability to use their zoning authority to restrict the free exercise of religion, and government officials cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.

Jackson Township officials are accused of engaging in discriminatory application of land use laws to inhibit the erection of sukkahs by the Township’s Jewish residents, particularly in their front yards. Sukkahs are temporary open-air structures constructed to mark Sukkot, a weeklong Jewish holiday celebrating the fall harvest. According to the complaint, after residents began to question and complain about the appearance of sukkahs, Jackson officials modified their interpretation of a local ordinance to effectively prohibit sukkahs in front yards. The complaint alleges that the township’s new enforcement policy discriminated against Jewish residents.

Jackson officials are accused of discriminating against Orthodox Jews by enacting zoning ordinances in 2017 that essentially banned the establishment of yeshivas and dormitories, even as a former member of the zoning board warned Reina that "Jackson will be sued and it will cost the taxpayers dearly to defend the ordinance, potentially millions," if the town effectively prohibited religious schools.

Jackson is accused of discriminating against Orthodox Jews by enacting a 2017 zoning ordinance that targeted and effectively banned the creation of eruvim – symbolic, boundary-defined areas in which observant Orthodox Jews are permitted to engage in certain activities otherwise prohibited on the Sabbath (Friday evening to Saturday evening) and during the holiday of Yom Kippur. The boundaries of an eruv are often marked by affixing plastic strips known as “lechis” to utility poles.

The state's lawsuit alleges the policies and enforcement actions "reflect Jackson Township officials' acquiescence to – and often solidarity with – anti-Orthodox-Jewish bias voiced by certain residents about Orthodox Jews including that they 'refuse to assimilate' and that they will 'destroy our neighborhoods.' "

"We will not allow municipalities to discriminate against residents because of their religious beliefs or to take actions based on residents' intolerance," said Aaron Scherzer, chief of strategic initiatives and enforcement at the state's Division on Civil Rights. "Instead, as we confront a rising tide of bias across the state and around the country, we need our local leaders to set an example for how to address intolerance and persistent othering."

The lawsuit asks the court to find that each of the challenged zoning practices violates the Law Against Discrimination, to issue an order prohibiting Jackson Township’s discrimination against the Orthodox Jewish community, and to impose civil penalties.

It's not the first time the state has sued a town alleging civil rights violations in its zoning practices; in 2017, the state sued Mahwah Township after it adopted ordinances that banning nonresidents from using Mahwah’s public parks and banned the posting of “lechis” on utility poles within the municipality. The Mahwah lawsuit was settled in 2018.

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