Down the shore

Good morning!

A state appeals court on Monday revived New Jersey teens’ hopes for after-prom parties at Seaside Heights.

The Ocean County borough passed an ordinance three years ago banning anyone under 21 from renting rooms there during prom and graduation season. Town officials said young people descended on their town every year to celebrate the end of high school, bringing underage drinking, vandalism, and general mayhem.

A group of motel owners sued and lost — but on Monday the appellate panel revived the suit, saying the motel owners have a right to argue before a trial judge that the ordinance violates the New Jersey Constitution.

The Seaside Heights presents “constitutionally significant burdens on the rights of would-be motel guests,” the ruling says.

Ezra Rosenberg of the ACLU-NJ argued in favor of striking the ordinance and cheered the new ruling as a win for young people.

“Now, it’s up to the borough to demonstrate that it can justify such harsh restrictions. Instead of discriminating based on age, the better solution is to enforce existing laws specifically designed to deal with those committing unlawful acts,” he said.

Read more from Sophie Nieto-Muñoz.

Housing: Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a bill yesterday that restricts landlords’ use of rent-setting software, saying the algorithms are boosting housing costs. “Landlords can use these algorithms to coordinate prices, move in lockstep, and push rent higher and higher. It’s collusion by algorithm, and it’s illegal, and it stacks the deck against renters,” she said. RealPage, which makes the kinds of products criticized by Sherrill, has said it is a scapegoat for rising housing prices.

Commentary: Baruch Feigenbaum with Reason Foundation, which just published a study that ranks New Jersey 40th in the nation for overall highway cost-effectiveness and road conditions, writes for us today on the state of our roads: “New Jersey’s highway system is one of the busiest in the country. Millions of people rely on it every day, and businesses depend on it to move goods across the Northeast. For a state with such a critical transportation network, New Jersey has made some solid gains in recent years, but still has a lot of work to do.”

Health: At-home colon cancer test kits are becoming more popular, but a new Rutgers study says nearly half of those who take them do not follow up regularly with annual retests, increasing their risk for undiagnosed cancers. “There are a lot of people who are squeamish about a colonoscopy. The best test is the test that gets done,” said the study’s author, Dr. Ethan Halm.

Books: Author Caitlin Mullen is letting the world in on a bit of a New Jersey secret. We’ve got one of the scariest places on the globe here, the Pine Barrens. It’s the setting of her novel “Heather” and she talked to Elisabeth Egan at the NY Times about the infamous region: “You have no vantage points. You can’t see where you’ve come from. You can’t see what you’re heading toward.”

Courts: A federal judge in California put a pause on the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger after a group of Dem-led states like New Jersey sued to stop the consolidation. “Today’s order, which temporarily blocks this unlawful merger while our case continues, is a major win for consumers. It is the first step in what I hope will be a total victory for New Jerseyans, who can ill-afford another price hike caused by opportunistic billionaires. Make no mistake: we will continue to stand up in court against corporate monopolists who drive up prices and harm New Jerseyans,” New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport said.

D.C.: Hockey sticks, wine, and cement from Canada are among the products that will be hit with 50% tariffs, President Donald Trump said Monday. Trump has threatened Canada with tariffs over the wildfires that have made our airs hazier, but a Trump officials said these are not those — these new taxes are in response to discrimination against U.S. commerce.