Bill > S979

Introduced Session

This bill would eliminate a provision in the bias intimidation statute, N.J.S.2C:16-1, concerning the victim's perception of the defendant's purpose. In a 2015 decision the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that this provision is unconstitutional. Currently, subsection a. of N.J.S.2C:16-1 provides that a person is guilty of the crime of bias intimidation if he commits an enumerated offense under any of the following circumstances: (1) with a purpose to intimidate an individual or group of individuals because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity; or (2) knowing that the conduct constituting the offense would cause an individual or group of individuals to be intimidated because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity; or (3) under circumstances that caused a victim . . . to be intimidated and the victim . . . reasonably believed either that (a) the offense was committed with a purpose to intimidate the victim or any person or entity in whose welfare the victim is interested because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity, or (b) the victim or the victim's property was selected to be the target of the offense because of the victim's race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity. In State v. Pomianek, 221 N.J. 66 (2015), the Supreme Court held that paragraph (3) of subsection a. violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court ruled that paragraph (3) "is sufficiently vague that a person of reasonable intelligence cannot discern the dividing line between criminal and lawful behavior. A line that moves based on the victim's perceptions, however reasonable and perhaps mistaken, does not give adequate notice of what is prohibited . . . " This bill would eliminate the provision concerning the victim's perception and replace it with language concerning a "reasonable" victim. Similar language concerning a "reasonable" victim is set out in the stalking statute, subsection b. of section 1 of P.L.1992, c.209 (C.2C:12-10), and was upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court in State v. Gandhi, 201 N.J. 161 (2008). Under the bill, a person would be guilty of the crime of bias intimidation pursuant to paragraph (3) of subsection a. of N.J.S.2C:16-1 if he commits an enumerated crime "under circumstances that would cause a reasonable individual or group of individuals to be intimidated because of the individual's or group's race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity."

AI Summary

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Jon Bramnick (R)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document