Last Friday, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey denied the motion to dismiss ERIC’s legal challenge of the expanded NJ WARN Act filed by the State of New Jersey, allowing our lawsuit to move forward. In its motion, the State argued that ERIC lacks standing to sue, that the issue at hand is not yet ripe, and that New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo lacks proper enforcement authority under the expanded law to justify being made a party defendant in this case.
In the released opinion, Judge Martinotti addressed and rejected each of the arguments made by the State, instead siding with the arguments that ERIC made in our filed response to the State’s motion to dismiss. The judge found that ERIC has organizational standing, that the issue at hand is purely legal and therefore ripe, and that Commissioner Asaro-Angelo does, in fact, have proper enforcement authority in the law at hand under the precedent of Ex parte Young.
This win comes just a day after ERIC filed our motion for summary judgment, arguing that no issue of material fact exists in the case and that the Court should issue a final ruling in ERIC’s favor. This newest motion builds upon ERIC’s original complaint filed back in August and reiterates our argument that the requirements of the expanded New Jersey WARN Act collectively force employers to create an ongoing administrative scheme, that this sort of state action is expressly forbidden by ERISA, and that future enforcement of the act should therefore be enjoined.
For more information on ERIC’s recently filed motion for summary judgment, click here.
