N.J. Supreme Court will hear arguments about state's recall procedures for federal elected representatives
U.S. Senator Robert Menendez in an April 2010 file photo. Tea party activists are making their argument to recall Menendez today in the New Jersey Supreme Court.
TRENTON — A tea party group that wants to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez more than two years before his term is up will make its case before the state Supreme Court today.
“What’s at stake is the people's rights,” said Richard Luzzi, president of the Morristown Tea Party and co-counsel in the case to recall Menendez. “It’s the founding principles of the country. Either the power is with the people who elect and maintain their representatives, or the representatives rule over the people.”
Although the state constitution provides a mechanism to recall elected officials – by collecting signatures of 25 percent of the entire state’s registered voters, which amounts to 1.3 million people – the U.S. Constitution has no provision for recall of federal representatives. Menendez argues that the federal constitution trumps the state constitution.
Meanwhile, state Democrats have seized the publicity generated from the recall case to highlight controversial statements and affiliations of the group’s leaders and tie them to controversial statements made last week about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by Kentucky Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul, a tea party favorite.
The Democratic State Committee has devoted a website to documenting the recall leaders’ controversial political stances, statements and affiliations, including noting that one questioned President Obama’s citizenship.
“Who are the people leading and supporting this effort? Are they from the extreme right wing? Are they connected with special interest groups? Are they from outside New Jersey’s mainstream? Yes. All of the above,” reads the web page.