On March 16, a New Jersey Superior Court ruled that it is possible that states may provide for recall of members of Congress, and that such a provision would not violate the U.S. Constitution. The case is Committee to Recall Robert Menendez from the Office of U.S. Senator v Wells, A-2254-09T1.

As a result, the court said that the New Jersey Secretary of State should let the recall group have copies of the recall petition. Since the law requires a number of signers equal to 25% of the number of registered voters to get the recall on the ballot, it is very unlikely the group can get enough valid signatures. Over 1,200,000 valid signatures would be required.

This is only the second known decision on whether states may have procedures for recall of members of Congress. An Idaho state court in 1967 said that the U.S. Constitution does not permit recall for Congress.

The New Jersey court did not say that recall is definitely permitted. The decision says, “To summarize, we neither declare the recall provision in our State Constitution as applied to a U.S. Senator definitively valid or invalid.” Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.