PLAINFIELD — A Plainfield school board member with a criminal past is challenging the legality of a new state law expected to lead to his removal from office. Earlier this year, Rasheed Abdul-Haqq became the poster boy of those who said the law — which requires all New Jersey board of education members to undergo criminal background checks, just...
Rasheed Abdul-Haqq is seeking an injunction to delay his removal, and also asking the court to consider striking down the retroactive component of the law.PLAINFIELD — A Plainfield school board member with a criminal past is challenging the legality of a new state law expected to lead to his removal from office.
Earlier this year, Rasheed Abdul-Haqq became the poster boy of those who said the law — which requires all New Jersey board of education members to undergo criminal background checks, just like employees — is too strict. Under the new rules, the 68-year-old is disqualified from serving because of a conviction for having a small bag of heroin in 1968.
An admitted user and a low-level dealer until that time, Abdul-Haqq, who was born Bradford Reed, said the eight months he spent in a state reformatory changed him. When he returned to Plainfield, he became a part of the city’s Muslim community, worked as county corrections officer and later a business owner. He kept a clean record since 1970, save a 1981 conviction for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct — the end result, he says, of a traffic stop.
In a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court, Abdul-Haqq doesn’t argue he should be allowed to run for office again — just that he should be allowed to finish his term.
His main point: The state can’t pass a retroactive law like this one.
"This new law represents an unprecedented attempt to alter the results of ... a school board election or the decision of a mayor to appoint a person as a member of a school board," the complaint, filed by attorney Robert Pickett, says.
The Plainfield school board, Union County and four local voters are also listed as plaintiffs. They are suing the state, the Department of Education and Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf.
The new law, signed in May by Gov. Chris Christie, bans service on local and charter school boards by those convicted of certain crimes — first- and second-degree drug possessions included.
Background checks for current board members have been taking place in recent months and letters of disqualification are being sent to school districts and board members who don’t pass, according to Richard Vespucci, a spokeswoman for the state education department.
In Atlantic City, school board member George Crouch was removed earlier this month. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty to the manufacture and distribution of narcotics in 1992 and was sentenced to five years in prison, according to court records. He also pleaded guilty in 1988 to a weapons possession charge and was sentenced to 18 months.
The education department declined to comment on the lawsuit because it is pending. The state Office of the Attorney General also declined, citing office policy on ongoing cases.
Abdul-Haqq is seeking an injunction to delay his removal, and also asking the court to consider striking down the retroactive component of the law. His attorney said that removing board members in the middle of a term would mean a violation of the constitution’s "ex-post facto" clause, which expressly forbids laws that retroactively change legal consequences. It’s also a concern for citizens who supported anyone the law removes, Pickett said.
"It sort of disenfranchises some voters as to their choice at the election," he said last week. "The voters voted for him. They had every intention of seeing him see out his term."
The state has filed a motion opposing the lawsuit and requesting the court dismiss the case. Case law provides for retroactive laws where there is a "legitimate legislative purpose," the state argues.
"There can be no doubt that (the new law) supports a legitimate legislative purpose: to hold members of local boards of education to the same high standards as the employees they supervise."
But The New Jersey School Boards Association, which is urging compliance with the law, claims the school ethics act prohibits board members from having more access to school buildings than ordinary citizens.
"Second, while I cannot comment on the court action at this time, it may be noted that, to our knowledge, the law requiring criminal background checks for school employees, which was enacted in the mid-1980s, was not applied retroactively," said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the group.