A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a former elected official in Elizabeth who alleged town leaders violated his rights when a police officer removed several of his signs for failing to comply with the municipal code.

Jason Weiss, a former member of the town’s board of trustees, ran against then-Mayor Megan Vasquez in a 2020 recall election. Following his loss, Weiss sued Vasquez, the clerk, the police chief and two police officers based on the removal of his political signage from private property.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney threw out the lawsuit, agreeing with a magistrate judge’s conclusions that Weiss failed to state a claim that town officials violated his constitutional rights. Moreover, he neglected to properly notify the officer who confiscated Weiss’ signs about the lawsuit.

According to his complaint, Weiss claimed a violation of his free speech and due process rights because several of his political signs “were found in the trunk” of Sgt. Sean Bigler’s patrol vehicle in March 2020. Weiss also alleged the entire section of the Elizabeth Municipal Code pertaining to political signage was not a permissible regulation under the First Amendment.

The town officials pointed out Weiss had not described their personal involvement in any alleged constitutional violation. They also said Weiss had not specifically identified which provision of the town code he believed was unconstitutional.

“Rather than identifying any restriction, the Town is left to speculate what aspect of its municipal code is constitutionally deficient,” lawyers for the town defendants wrote.

In response, Weiss attempted to introduce new information. He attached a police report from Officer J. Rogers, one of the defendants, that showed Rogers was the one who had removed Weiss’ signs for failing to comply with the requirement that their date of placement be marked in the corner. Weiss also cited a memorandum from the town directing property owners to be notified prior to the removal of noncompliant signage.

“The Town of Elizabeth, through its ‘Town staff’, failed to provide Mr. Weiss with the bare minimum requirements of due process before his signs were removed from private property and destroyed,” wrote attorney J. Richard Kunckel.

In analyzing the lawsuit, U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter initially observed that, for reasons that were unclear, Weiss had never notified Rogers of the lawsuit. Therefore, Rogers could not be held liable for removing the signs.

Neureiter also agreed Weiss had not shown how the other town officials personally participated in any violation, nor had Weiss met the requirements for alleging alleging a conspiracy. As for his claim that portions of the municipal code were unconstitutional, Neureiter noted Weiss appeared to belatedly raise a different grievance: that Rogers did not follow the code closely enough.

“Mr. Weiss seemingly argues that his constitutional rights were violated because Officer Rogers – who, again, is not a party to this suit – violated the Town’s policy of notifying landowners of any code violation,” Neureiter wrote on Oct. 6. “In other words, he does not challenge the Town’s notice requirements. Instead, he asserts his rights were violated when the Town’s written notice requirements were not followed by a Town employee.”

Weiss filed a brief objection to Neureiter’s analysis, but Sweeney adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss the case. Even if it was clear what portions of the code Weiss was challenging, she wrote, Weiss had not shown how the town was liable for an unconstitutional policy, rather than “the individual actions of an office who violated the town’s policy of notifying landowners of a code violation.”

The case is Weiss v. Vasquez et al.