Human trafficking is a serious problem in New Jersey and throughout the country. A few days ago, six people were charged with running several brothels in Lakewood that were part of a human trafficking and sex slave network spanning New Jersey, New York and surrounding states. When New Jersey hosts the Super Bowl next year, we will also have the dubious honor of hosting the largest single-day sex-trafficking event in the country. We therefore commend the Legislature’s goals in enacting the “Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection and Treatment Act,” which was passed without a single dissenting vote and signed by the governor early this year.
But the ink was hardly dry on the bill when its enforcement was temporarily enjoined by U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh, pending a later hearing for injunctive relief. As salutary as the bill’s goal obviously is, we fear the Legislature may have taken one constitutional shortcut too many for the law to pass muster on both Supremacy Clause and First Amendment grounds.
