New Jersey
New Jersey
Final grade: C+
Exclusion Grade
C+
Relevance Grade
C
Due Process Grade
C+
Strengths
- Boards must evaluate multiple mitigating factors (including evidence of rehabilitation) when considering licensing applications.
Areas of Improvement
- Strengthen safeguards for due process by requiring a petition process and placing the burden of proof on the state.
- Prevent agencies from considering arrest records and old convictions.
- Ban boards from using vague standards like “moral turpitude” to disqualify applicants.
Updated May 2021
A 2021 reform added some modest protections for applicants with criminal records, but with a major loophole. Under the new law, licensing entities can disqualify based on a criminal record if it has a “direct or substantial relationship” to the license. But applicants can also be blocked if a licensing entity decides that granting a license to work “would be inconsistent with the public’s health, safety, or welfare,” a significantly weaker standard.
Statute: N.J. Rev. Stat. § 2A:168A-1 (West 1982), N.J. Rev. Stat. § 45:1-21 (West 2003)
Exclusion
| Overarching ban on blanket bans | Yes |
| Ban on considering arrest records | No |
| Ban on considering post-conviction relief records | No |
| Time limit | No limit |
| Ban on vague, discretionary character standards | No, but the state repealed using moral turpitude as a potential disqualifier |
Relevance
| Relationship between the crime and the license sought | "Direct or substantial relationship" or "would be inconsistent with the public’s health, safety, or welfare" |
| Required factors for consideration | |
| Rehabilitation | Yes |
| Time elapsed since crime was committed | Yes |
| Age when crime was committed | Yes |
| Employment History | No |
| Testimonials | No |
Due Process
| Petition Process | No, but licensing entities must offer applicants an opportunity to be heard before deciding to disqualify |
| Burden of Proof | Standard unspecified. For crimes that trigger sex offender registration, as well as murder, there is a "rebuttable assumption" that they "would be inconsistent with the public’s health, safety, or welfare." |
| Right to appeal | No |
| Written notice requirement | Yes |