Christie Blasts COAH Decision

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

If you needed another reason to vote Republican in this November’s state senate elections, Save Jerseyans, here’s a biggie.

The N.J. Supreme Court ruled earlier today that Governor Chris Christie exceeded his authority by abolishing the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).

“Because COAH is ‘in, but not of,’ an Executive Branch department, the plain language of the Reorganization Act, which extends the Chief Executive’s authority only to agencies that are ‘of the executive branch,’ (the statute) N.J.S.A. 52:14C-3(a)(1), does not encompass, and thus does not authorize the Governor to abolish, an independent agency like COAH,” said the Court in a 5-2 vote.

Governor Christie obviously has a different take; he issued a statement shortly after the decision broke:

Both elected branches of government approved the plan to eliminate COAH. Not surprisingly, this liberal Supreme Court once again ignores that and continues to blindly perpetuate its failed social experiment in housing. The Chief Justice’s activist opinion arrogantly bolsters another of the failures he and his colleagues have foisted on New Jersey taxpayers. This only steels my determination to continue to fight to bring common sense back to New Jersey’s judiciary.”

Click here to read the full decision, and visit our extensive Save Jersey COAH archives to catch up on a topic which we mercifully haven’t had to broach for some time. Then click here to get to know the 2013 GOP State Senate candidates who, if elected, can help Chris Christie push new justices/judges past a Democrat firewall. Education funding, COAH, and a host of other critical issues will never be resolved in the taxpayers’ favor until we have a high court that focuses on interpreting the constitution instead of behaving like a “legislature of last resort” for programs which the voters clearly opposed at the ballot box.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us