A group of New Jersey legislators are pushing forward with a bill that would overturn a 3-year-old state Supreme Court ruling that said local law enforcement lacked authority to prosecute two high school chaperones accused of having sex with three students on a school trip to Germany.

In unanimous ruling from April 2015 in State v. Sumulikoski and State v. Sopel, the court said New Jersey prosecutors had no authority to prosecute sex crimes that occurred outside of the state's borders. “There must be territorial jurisdiction in New Jersey for the state to prosecute a crime here,” the court said in its unsigned ruling. “The state has the power to prosecute crimes that occur within its borders but may not bring charges for offenses committed entirely in another state or country.”

The group of legislators, led by Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, D-Bergen, is seeking to vacate that ruling.

They are sponsoring A-1013, which would expand the state's jurisdiction to prosecute crimes concerning endangering the welfare of a child in situations where a person having a legal duty or the assumed responsibility for the care of a child in New Jersey engages in sexual conduct with that child in a jurisdiction other than in New Jersey.