Edison Council President Nishith Patel is trying to walk back his decision to eject a local attorney from a township council meeting last month for displaying an American flag, but that might not be enough to avoid a bruising and probably uphill fight to retain his seat if he seeks re-election next year.
The resident, Joel Bassoff, was removed from a November 25 council meeting for challenging the constitutionality of a local decorum ordinance banning the public from displaying props, costumes, and messaging masks—a tactic some members of the public used to mock the council.
“You don’t like being embarrassed, so you’re trying to ban the people who humiliate you,” said Bassoff. “But the best way to avoid humiliation is to stop doing stupid things, like trying to clamp down on constitutionally protected symbolic speech.”
Bassoff decided to hold up an American flag – “They say that a picture is worth a thousand words,” he told the council – to make his point on why the no-prop ordinance was wrong.
“If you get sued, you will lose,” he told the council.
That’s when Patel lost control of his meeting – an event that has made national news.
He directed two police officers to remove Bassoff from the council chambers, seemingly because he had displayed a flag in violation of the decorum ordinance.
“Your time should be forfeited,” Patel told the man.
“Your position should be forfeited by your actions,” responded Bassoff. “Shame on you.”
Ejection
Patel’s order to the police officers was backed up by the municipal attorney, Michael Burns, who told Bassoff that he continued speaking after his time was forfeited.
“You continued after the officers told you to sit down and continue. After the Council president repeatedly asked you to stop,” Burns told the resident. “You’ve now been asked to be removed from the chambers, so there’s no reason to remove it from the chambers.”
That raised the ire of Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Denville), a conservative who pointed out that Burns is a partner at Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s law firm.
“Burns’ job is to advise the Edison council against passing stupid ordinances like this one. Maybe he did advise them against it, but the video shows him telling Bassoff that he wasn’t following orders, not telling Patel there is a problem with suppressing speech,” Bergen stated. “It’s a costly misstep, and Burns should step down.”
Bassoff protested his ejection from the room entirely.
“Why do I have to leave the building? I’m not trespassing,” he said. “He gave a warning and I sat down.”
On Tuesday, Patel apologized for “confusion surrounding the decorum ordinance.”
“Let me be very clear: the Edison Council has never, nor will we ever, ban the American flag from our public meetings,” Patel said. “It was never, ever the intent of this council to ban the American flag. In fact, nowhere in the ordinance is there even a reference to our nation’s flag being banned. If any of my remarks during the previous council meeting implied that, I apologize.”
He said the decorum ordinance was approved “to prevent the chronic and chaotic disturbances that have found their way into our council chamber, which at times prevent us from doing the important business of our township.”
A clinical pharmacist specializing in transplant medication, Patel was elected to the council in 2021 after winning a Democratic primary as the running mate of now-Mayor Sam Joshi and a general election by less than four percentage points.
Patel is up for re-election this year in an election that will likely be run without organization lines and could be a liability to Joshi in the Democratic primary and the general election.