Today, U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi issued a decision dismissing a federal lawsuit and denying a request for a motion to stay that would have delayed implementation of New Jersey’s landmark 2024 affordable housing law (A4/S50).
Today’s decision rejected arguments already dismissed repeatedly by New Jersey state courts. It follows another ruling last September by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert T. Lougy, who dismissed with prejudice a similar lawsuit brought by the same group of municipalities. Those claims were also previously rejected in two failed attempts to stay the law, two failed emergent applications to the Appellate Division, and a failed appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
The lawsuit was brought by three dozen municipalities, including many of the wealthiest and most historically exclusionary towns in the state. Using their local taxpayer dollars, they first filed a case in 2024 attempting to undermine New Jersey’s affordable housing framework, which requires each municipality to allow its fair share of affordable housing.
“The courts have been crystal clear — New Jersey’s affordable housing law is here to stay,” said Adam Gordon, executive director at Fair Share Housing Center, who argued against the towns’ request before Judge Quraishi. “Now that the federal court has rejected these claims in full, it’s time to move forward — as the overwhelming majority of municipalities already are — by producing the affordable homes New Jersey desperately needs.”
As a result of the successful implementation of A4/S50, the vast majority of New Jersey’s municipalities are now creating affordable housing. Following the Dec. 31 deadline to resolve challenges to municipal housing plans through mediation, Fair Share Housing Center announced that approximately 380 municipalities have developed compliant plans — an unprecedented level of participation in the state’s affordable housing process.
In New Jersey, the constitutional obligation for each municipality to allow its fair share of affordable homes, known as the Mount Laurel Doctrine, is recalculated every 10 years in cycles known as Rounds. Each municipality’s obligations are calculated by looking at factors in various regions of the state — such as job growth, existing affordability, and the growth of low- and moderate-income households — which determines an individualized requirement for affordable housing.
Ahead of the Fourth Round of Obligations that started in 2025, A4/S50 streamlined the affordable housing development process and codified the methodology used to determine each municipality’s obligations over the next decade. The legislation’s primary sponsors were Senate President Nicholas Scutari, Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, State Senator Troy Singleton, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, and State Assemblymembers Yvonne Lopez, Benjie Wimberly, and Verlina Reynolds-Jackson.
New Jersey’s law gives towns a wide variety of tools to create affordable housing in the way they prefer. Municipalities can choose from a range of options — such as 100% affordable housing, mixed-income housing, supportive housing for seniors or people with disabilities, or repurposing abandoned malls or offices. Towns only lose their ability to be in control of the process when they refuse to allow any affordable housing.
One claim raised in the lawsuit — that urban municipalities do not have affordable housing obligations — is simply false. Because urban municipalities have historically produced far more affordable housing than suburban towns, their obligations largely involve rehabilitating thousands of existing homes — which often far exceed suburban obligations in total.
To view each municipality’s housing plan, visit the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program and click through the counties on the left column. This website is itself a product of the new law, which for the first time requires all municipal housing plans to be publicly available upon filing.
“The vast majority of municipalities are embracing New Jersey’s affordable housing law and utilizing it to build homes in ways that work best for their communities,” added Gordon. “With the courts having repeatedly rejected these attacks, municipal leaders can now focus on implementing their housing plans and allowing the affordable homes New Jerseyans urgently need.”
