Do hard facts make bad law? C.V. v. Waterford Township Board of Education, (Sept.12, 2023), certainly presented the New Jersey Supreme Court with hard, horrific facts. And the court’s timing in issuing its opinion—this was the only case argued last term and decided this term—suggests that it did not find the issue an easy one. Whether its application of the Law Against Discrimination to those facts has resulted in bad law with unintended consequences remains to be seen.

When C.V. was a pre-kindergarten student she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a 76-year-old bus aide who was supposed to be protecting her. Her parents discovered the abuse when she returned from school without her underwear. C.V. disclosed that the aide “Stuck his fingers in her vagina and … told her not to tell her mommy or the police.” Graphic details of further abuse were provided to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and a physician. Ultimately the aide confessed that he had sexually assaulted C.V. on multiple bus rides; that he had covered the bus video camera and touched her intimate areas. He was indicted and plead guilty to first degree sexual assault. He was determined to be a “repetitive and compulsive” sex offender who admitted to molesting other children and sentenced to 10 years subject to the No Early Release Act.