Supreme Court Says New Jersey Can Break 70-Year Anti-Crime Pact With New York
The decision brings down the curtain on an agency created to fight crime on the docks as depicted in the film “On the Waterfront.”
By Patrick McGeehan, New York Times
April 18, 2023
After 70 years, the partnership between New York and New Jersey to keep organized crime out of one the nation’s biggest cargo ports is over.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that New Jersey can unilaterally withdraw from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which was formed by a bistate compact in 1953. The decision ends an uneasy alliance that was a rare source of discord between the two states.
New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, asked the nation’s top court to intervene last year to prevent New Jersey from dissolving the shipping industry-funded commission, whose origin dates back to an era when mobsters controlled the docks around the harbor. Ms. James said at the time that New Jersey’s effort to break the compact was “unlawful, ill-advised and infringes on our efforts to crack down on crime.”
But the justices unanimously disagreed.
In a decision written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court said that, although the compact did not address the question of a state’s right to withdraw, the states did not intend for the commission to operate forever. “Given that the States did not intend for the agreement to be perpetual, it would not make much sense to conclude that each State implicitly conferred on the other a perpetual veto of withdrawal,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.
Ms. James and Kathy Hochul, the Democratic governor of New York, said in a statement that they were disappointed by the decision.
“For decades, the Waterfront Commission has been a vital law enforcement agency, protecting essential industries at the port and cracking down on organized crime,” their statement said. “We will continue to do everything in our power to combat corruption and crime, protect the health of our economy, and ensure the safety of New Yorkers.”
New Jersey officials have argued that the mob domination of the docks depicted in the 1954 movie “On the Waterfront” is a thing of the past. Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said last year that the commission did not fairly represent the interests of New Jersey, where most of the cargo bound for the New York metropolitan region is now handled.
On Tuesday, Mr. Murphy said he was “thrilled” by the court’s ruling.
“For many years, frustration over the Commission’s operations has been building,” he said in a statement. “I am proud that after a five-year battle in the federal courts, where my administration used every legal tool at our disposal, New Jersey’s sovereign right to govern our ports has been vindicated.”
After a few rounds of litigation over New Jersey’s attempt to dissolve it, Mr. Murphy notified the commission last year that he intended to withdraw the state’s sole commissioner and assign the state police to assume the agency’s duties on New Jersey’s side of the harbor. But last summer, after New Jersey’s commissioner resigned, Mr. Murphy appointed Jennifer Davenport, a utility company executive, to fill the position.
The commission performed background checks on prospective port workers and had the power to decide how many could be hired and when. It also used its power in more recent years to demand that waterfront unions add diversity to membership ranks that have traditionally been dominated by white men.
Fighting corruption remained a key focus. Several years ago, the commission investigated and helped prosecute union officials, shop stewards and foremen over a conspiracy to extort their own union members on behalf of the Genovese organized crime family.
In 2019, a joint investigation by the commission and New Jersey’s attorney general led to the sentencing of six men for their roles in criminal schemes that involved loan-sharking, illegal gambling and money laundering on behalf of the Genovese family.
But the commission’s critics argued that it was obsolete. Among them were the International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents most workers at the ports, and the New York Shipping Association, whose members operate the terminals where huge cargo ships are unloaded.
The bulk of the cargo that arrives in the harbor goes to ports in Newark and Elizabeth, N.J. The terminal operators there pay fees that cover most of the commission’s budget. The shipping association said last year that it would stop making those payments, but it did not carry out that threat.
Mr. Murphy said the New Jersey State Police were “more than capable of taking on the Commission’s law enforcement and regulatory responsibilities.”
He said he looked forward to working with New York officials “to ensure a swift and orderly dissolution of the Commission in a way that ensures security and uninterrupted business at New Jersey’s ports.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/nyre ... yc-nj.html