New Jersey has been permanently enjoined from enforcing a law enacted to shed light on dark money campaign contributions.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti signed orders converting a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the dark money law into a final judgment. The orders were signed in a pair of First Amendment suits, one brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the national ACLU, and another by a social welfare organization called Illinois Opportunity Project.

Wednesday's orders bar enforcement actions against any independent expenditure committee for noncompliance with the act. The orders do not prevent legislators or the Election Law Enforcement Commission from enacting and enforcing future legislation on the subject of dark money.

"This court order halts the enforcement of a law that hindered the freedom of assembly, hampered the right to petition government, and compromised privacy rights," ACLU-NJ Legal Director Jeanne LoCicero said in a statement. "All nonprofits should be able to communicate about issues of public concern without fear of being subject to invasive disclosure rules."

"Adopted under the guise of transparency, these laws are designed to allow opponents of advocacy groups to intimidate and harass the organizations' supporters," Patrick Hughes, president of the Liberty Justice Center, a public interest organization that represented the Illinois Opportunity Project, said in a statement. "All Americans should be free to support causes they believe in without an invasion into their privacy through excessive government reporting requirements or retribution from their opponents."

When Martinotti issued the preliminary injunction in October 2019, he said the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their challenge, and that he was troubled by the law's requirement that groups communicating purely factual information could be subjected to a disclosure scheme historically limited to election-related communications.

The New Jersey law required certain groups that raise or spend money for issue advocacy to identify their donors. But the suits said the New Jersey law violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments and unfairly targeted social welfare organizations while exempting labor unions and business groups.

Plaintiffs in the ACLU and Illinois Opportunity Project cases agreed to pay their own legal fees and costs. A third group that went to court to challenge the dark money law, Americans for Prosperity, is preparing to submit a fee application in the case, and no permanent injunction has been issued in that case.

Stephanie Teplin of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler represented the ACLU along with LoCicero.

Daniel Suhr and Brian Kelsey of the Liberty Justice Center represented the Illinois Opportunity Project along with Mark Scirocco of the Law Office of Robert Scirocco in Budd Lake as local counsel. Kevin Marino and John Boyle of Marino, Tortorella & Boyle in Chatham represented Americans for Prosperity.

Stuart Feinblatt and Adam Masef of the Attorney General's Office represented Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and members of the Election Law Enforcement Commission. The Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.