Governor Phil Murphy told NJ.com’s Brent Johnson in response to a question about the NJGOP’s suit announced earlier today.

“There’s a suit against me?

“As you can tell, I’ve spent a lot of time focused on that suit.

“I’ve got nothing to add,” Murphy added.

The NJGOP earlier today said the organization filed its lawsuit on behalf of shuttered employers and some 1.1 million unemployed workers from around New Jersey. Chairman Doug Steinhardt and the NJGOP said they joined forces with a group of small business owners and filed a lawsuit against Governor Phil Murphy and his Administration. Plaintiffs’ claims challenge the Governor for creating arbitrary and capricious classes of employers and employees and enacting and enforcing unconstitutional executive orders that deny millions of New Jerseyans equal protection under the law.

“Governor Murphy has irreparably harmed New Jersey small businesses by arbitrarily declaring some essential and others non-essential.  While mom and pop barbers, bars, brew pubs and retail shops are shuttered and struggling, big box stores, with big cash cushions, survive. Governor Murphy has callously covered his ears, closed his eyes, and ignored New Jersey’s cries for honest answers to real problems,” said Steinhardt. “The Covid crisis has created challenges for governments everywhere, but forty-nine other states are making progress, while New Jersey flounders. Governor Murphy could be guided by science,  but instead hides behind it.

“The Bill of Rights may be above Phil Murphy’s pay grade, but it’s not above ours,” the chairman added. “Our interventions may not matter to him, but they matter us. This lawsuit lets Plaintiffs plead their case to the Courts, since the Governor made clear that if you disagree with him you should move to another State.”

New Jersey Democratic State Committee (NJDSC) Spokesman Philip Swibinski later issued a formal response.