Petitioners submitted an application within this court's original jurisdiction, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 1:7-4, seeking to void the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, L. 2021, c. 375. In their application, petitioners asserted the Legislature had followed a constitutionally- and statutorily-deficient procedure in passing the Act. Petitioners also claimed the Act was unconstitutional in other substantive ways. They asked this court to invalidate the Act based on the alleged procedural deficiencies.
The court found petitioners had failed to show a constitutional infirmity in the procedure the Legislature followed in passing the Act and had failed to demonstrate this court has the authority to declare the Act invalid based solely on alleged statutory violations. Therefore, the court denied the aspect of petitioners' application based on an allegedly constitutionally-deficient procedure and remanded the rest of the application to the Law Division.