The New Jersey Constitution at 75

DECEMBER 18, 2023. In a pending lawsuit, the plaintiffs assert that New Jersey’s public schools are among the most racially segregated in the nation. The State has not disputed the facts. Plaintiffs claim that the State is violating Art. I, sec. 5 and Art. VIII, sec. 4, para. 1 of the New Jersey Constitution. If the plaintiffs win this politically explosive case, every public school in the state will be affected.

What do Art. I, sec. 5 and Art. VIII, sec. 4, para. 1 of the New Jersey Constitution say? Is this what the framers of the New Jersey Constitution in 1947 intended?

Learn about this and more. Enrollment in “The New Jersey Constitution at 75” under the auspices of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of Rutgers University is now open.

Sign up at olliru.rutgers.edu.

The New Jersey Constitution at 75

When it went into effect in 1948, the New Jersey Constitution of 1947 was widely haled as the very model of a modern state constitution. Although it has mostly operated invisibly to the general public since then, it has intermittently become the focus of controversies that have galvanized New Jersey state and local politics: racial segregation; financing of public schools; exclusionary municipal zoning; inequitable taxation; malaportionment of the legislature, and asserted usurpation of power by variously the courts, the governor, and the legislature. Yet it remains unfamiliar both to ordinary citizens and to lawyers.

What good is a state constitution? What topics should it include? What omit? How have the answers to those question by the delegates to the 1947 constitutional convention reverberated in subsequent politics and policy?

In this course, we will explore together the origins and rationale of the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, its function and structure, and provisions that have triggered controversy. We will read together key provisions of the Constitution and brief excerpts from court opinions and other documents. The basic mode of the course will be group discussion and debate.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers University (OLLI-RU) is for individuals over 50 who are looking for an opportunity to expand their horizons, learn in an engaging environment, and meet new friends. OLLI-RU offers noncredit education that is stimulating, friendly, and informal–there are no tests and no grades! You will be part of a learning community that is full of diversity, insight, wisdom, intellectual and cultural stimulation, and friendship.