It’s a moving target.  Changes and lateness characterize the latest  iterations of proposed ordinance on Special Events (Protests) that Council has wrestled with since February 25.

On Tuesday, April 22 Council has scheduled a public hearing followed by a vote as to whether to adopt the current version. We have known about that latest version only since the early AM mornings of the day when the Township offices were closed (i.e. Friday, April 18).  

We know little about that latest version. We should ask Council to tell us about it. We should ask whether it meets the tests of constitutionality that we paid a constitutional expert to evaluate. This latest version may prove to be acceptable; but given the importance of balancing Free Speech with Public Safety, we need to be updated before Council turns this latest version into a Teaneck law (its Code). 

Here is where you can click in to all of the different documents that have circulated on the website about this ordinance – beginning with the latest one. 

Click Below for the brand new draft ordinance version up for adoption by Council on 4/22:

Revised Ord 20-2025 as of 4-18-2024 Full Ag

You can also Click Below for a version with red underlining that identifies the various changes made 3 times to this draft ordinance since the original one that never got introduced but was proposed on 2/25/2025.

4-18 Redlined version of 20-2025 with changes since 2q-25 proposed

And Click Below where – after much BACK & FORTH –  the public finally has access to one (perhaps the final) version of the Constitutional Expert’s Memo evaluating the constitutionality of our proposed ordinance 20-2025.

Scarinci Memo from 2025-04-22 Council – Full Ag

Click Here to see the very solid memo about this ordinance that retired attorney and long-time Teaneck resident Joseph Kaplan wrote back on March 20 and that Voices reproduced after it appeared in the Jewish Standard. 

Freedom of Speech and Assembly- Joseph Kaplan

Click Here to review the proposed amended “Special Events” ordinance as it was presented in the agenda packet for the April 8 Council Meeting at p. 249. Note it is first described as Ordinance 20-2025 in this 4/8 agenda.

from Proposed Ordinance 20-2025 for 4-8-2025 Council mtg

Click Here for a copy of the original proposed “Special Events” amended ordinance from the 2/25 Council meeting. This version was defeated – and was NEVER introduced
Proposed Protests Ordinance – Schwartz, Orgen, Katz 2-25

For readers who want to compare the February 25, 2025 proposed amended Special Events Ordinance with the Townships current Special Events Ordinance, Voices has scanned the current Code’s “Special Events” section.  (Town Code Chapter 31B. Special Events)

Click Here: Existing Special Events Ord – Feb 25-2025

Clearly the question of whether and if so how to amend this section of the Township code will again be addressed by this Council. At issue, obviously, is whether the proposed amendment is consistent with the 1st amendment to the Constitution. 

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.