The litigants in Bd. of Educ. of E. Newark v. Harris could have used some help from the professional ghostwriters at Sullivan | Simon. On March 24, 2021, the lower court ordered East Newark’s Municipal Clerk to conduct an unscheduled election on April 20 and have the ballots printed by March 25. The New Jersey Appellate Division granted the application seeking a stay of the order and directed the Clerk to file its brief the following day, a short turnaround that S | S would have accommodated. On March 23, the Appellate Division issued an order dismissing the underlying complaint. However, the Court issued this opinion to discuss the case’s merits. The lower court had tried to force a school-board issue onto an upcoming ballot, but the Appellate Division noted that N.J.S.A. 18A: 9-5 governed the timing of such a ballot question and required that the question be decided in a later election.
