Page:New York v. New Jersey (2023).pdf/5

Rh from the Waterfront Commission Compact. See 2017 N. J. Laws p. 2102. The statute required the New Jersey Governor to give 90 days’ notice of the State’s intention to withdraw. Upon withdrawal, the Commission would dissolve, and the New Jersey State Police would take over the Commission’s law-enforcement functions on the New Jersey side of the Port.

The day after enactment of the withdrawal statute, the Commission sued in Federal District Court to stop New Jersey from unilaterally withdrawing from the Compact. The District Court ruled that New Jersey could not unilaterally withdraw. Waterfront Comm’n of N. Y. Harbor v. Murphy, 429 F. Supp. 3d 1 (NJ 2019). But the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed and ruled in New Jersey’s favor, determining that state sovereign immunity barred the Commission’s lawsuit. Waterfront Comm’n of N. Y. Harbor v. Governor of New Jersey, 961 F. 3d 234 (2020).

In 2021, in the wake of the Third Circuit’s decision, Acting Governor Oliver announced New Jersey’s intent to unilaterally withdraw from the Compact. Before the expected date of withdrawal, New York moved in this Court for leave to file a bill of complaint and for a temporary order preventing New Jersey’s withdrawal. This Court temporarily enjoined New Jersey from withdrawing from the Compact pending final disposition of this case. The Court later granted New York’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint and allowed the parties to file cross-motions for judgment on the pleadings. In this Court, the United States also participated as amicus curiae in support of New Jersey’s unilateral withdrawal from the Compact.

The question presented is straightforward: Does the Waterfront Commission Compact allow New Jersey to unilaterally withdraw from the Compact notwithstanding