Assembly Minority Whip Brian Bergen is accusing the Sherrill administration of attempting to nullify a law it now regrets, urging Attorney General Jennifer Davenport to reject what he calls an unconstitutional suspension of New Jersey’s sweeping new consumer data law and demand that it either be enforced or amended by the Legislature.
In a sharply worded five-page letter sent Tuesday, the Morris County Republican argued that the executive branch has no authority to imply it will simply decline to enforce a statute signed into law just days earlier because of political backlash over its consequences.
On June 30, the Legislature passed A-5328, and Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed it.
“On July 10, your Department announced it would simply… not enforce it,” Bergen said. “No court struck it down. No injunction issued. No constitutional infirmity was identified. The Executive Branch just decided the law was inconvenient and turned it off.”
The dispute centers on New Jersey’s new consumer data law, which imposes some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on the sale of sensitive consumer information and has triggered alarm among political data vendors whose voter-targeting products rely on demographic modeling.
Last week, the Division of Consumer Affairs said it would delay certain aspects of enforcement while lawmakers work to address unintended consequences.
Bergen acknowledged he opposed the legislation from the outset, calling it “the most aggressive data statute in America,” but insisted that its flaws do not give the administration license to ignore it.
“I am not asking you to defend a bad law’s merits,” he told Davenport. “I think it’s a disaster. I want it fixed, narrowed, exempted, phased, capped, rewritten from the studs.”
“But there is exactly one lawful instrument for fixing a statute, and it is a statute. Not a press release. Not ‘additional guidance in the coming months,” Bergen stated.
Bergen argued that the attorney general’s constitutional duty is clear.
“The governor shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” he wrote. “Not the laws she likes. Not the laws that poll well. Not the laws that leave the Democratic State Committee’s voter file intact. The laws.”
The assemblyman also suggested the administration’s decision was driven by politics rather than public policy.
“Then the political vendors ran the numbers,” Bergen wrote. “A consultant told the press, ‘The apocalypse is coming.’ … Within hours, the administration greenlit non-enforcement.”
He contrasted what he described as ten days of inaction while businesses faced uncertainty with the swift response after concerns emerged that Democratic voter databases could be disrupted heading into the 2026 congressional elections.
“That is not consumer protection,” Bergen wrote. “That is a self-dealing government protecting its own supply chain.”
Bergen called on Davenport to issue a formal legal opinion identifying any constitutional or statutory authority that would allow the administration to suspend enforcement of the law prospectively. If no such authority exists, he urged her to enforce the statute until it is amended by the Legislature or enjoined by a court.
He also asked Davenport to publicly urge Sherrill to convene a special legislative session to revise the law through the normal legislative process and to preserve communications between the Governor’s Office, the Division of Consumer Affairs, and political organizations or campaign vendors regarding the enforcement decision.
Bergen concluded with a stark choice for the attorney general.
“Enforce the law, or tell the governor to call us back and change it,” he wrote. “Those are the two doors. There is no third one marked ‘Because I Said So.'”
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February 4, 2021