Earthjustice: New Jersey Appellate Court Affirms Environmental Justice Law

In a major win for environmental justice groups, a state appellate court gave the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection the green light to implement its landmark environmental justice law. The 2020 law was written to protect overburdened communities from further pollution, but it wasn’t until 2023 that New Jersey finalized rules that gave the law teeth. Polluting industries quickly sought to strike down any meaningful implementation of the law. Earthjustice fought back, representing numerous environmental justice community organizations as friends of the court to support the law’s implementation.