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| Date: From: Subject: | 12/10/2004 2:15:14 PM Home School Legal Defense Association New Jersey--Daytime Curfew Bill Scheduled for Vote Monday |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== December 10, 2004 New Jersey--Daytime Curfew Bill Scheduled for Vote Monday Dear HSLDA members and friends: A daytime curfew bill that has already passed the Senate may have an impact on homeschoolers. The Assembly will probably vote on S155 on Monday, and it is very unlikely it will be defeated. Therefore HSLDA is prepared to help homeschoolers at the local level if problems arise from this legislation. As it is written, it authorizes municipalities to adopt curfew ordinances forbidding public and private school students--but not homeschool students--from being in public places during the hours their school is in session. If the bill becomes law and your municipality tries to adopt a curfew, be vigilant to ensure that the local ordinance is not worse than the state law allows, and work to defeat all such ordinances. Below are several reasons why we have opposed daytime curfews across the country. Daytime curfews do not deter juvenile crime. Curfew proponents rely most heavily on the argument that daytime curfews deter juvenile crime. If this premise were true, then areas that strictly enforce a curfew ordinance should have a lower juvenile crime rate than areas that do not have a curfew. A recent California study compared the crime rates of counties that enforced curfew ordinances and counties that did not. The study found that the crime rate of the counties where a curfew ordinance was enforced remained the same as those counties without such an ordinance. The curfews had no effect on juvenile crime. Daytime curfews allow searches without probable cause. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution proscribes any investigation of a citizen without a "probable cause." Under curfew ordinances, police are not bound by this principle. They have the authority to stop and question, and possibly cite, anyone who appears to be young enough to be violating the curfew. Daytime curfews assume a person is guilty until proven innocent. In several incidents where homeschool students were stopped by police, the teenagers had not engaged in any suspicious activities. There was no evidence that they either had committed a crime or intended to commit a crime. Nonetheless, the police subjected the young people to interrogation and suspicion until they had proved their innocence. A daytime curfew reverses the long-held American presumption of "innocent until proven guilty." Daytime curfews are too vague. If a person of ordinary intelligence cannot understand what a law permits and prohibits, the law is considered "vague" and, therefore, unconstitutional. Daytime curfews can be challenged easily for vagueness. Terms such as "loitering," "idling," or even "being in" can be interpreted at an officer's or court's discretion, giving juveniles no clear idea of what they can or cannot do in public during the curfew hours. Because the ordinances are vague, they are void. Sincerely, Scott Woodruff HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Can you look at the clouds and tell the direction of the wind? An interesting phenomenon of wind is that it can blow in multiple directions at the same time, at different heights from the ground. But usually there is a prevailing wind. HSLDA watches the gusts and monitors the prevailing trends of change in the legal climate of home education. So no matter which way the wind is blowing, we're there to protect your family. 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