"Unconstitutional laws still on books cause confusion in NJ"

From AP/Newsday.com:

Numerous state laws that have been struck down as uncon­sti­tu­tional are still on the books in New Jersey, a sit­u­a­tion some experts say could be rec­ti­fied if the laws were just removed. Others say it’s not that easy.

Some of the laws are sim­ply out­dated, such as one that lim­its the amount of money county jails can spend to feed inmates to 50 cents per day.

…

Other laws have caused more con­tro­versy. Some high school stu­dents have been sus­pended for refus­ing to stand dur­ing the morn­ing Pledge of Allegiance, accord­ing to Deborah Jacobs, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

The sus­pen­sions would appear to be sup­ported by a state law that requires all stu­dents “show full respect to the flag” by stand­ing dur­ing the pledge even if they don’t recite it. But the law was ruled uncon­sti­tu­tional by a fed­eral appeals court in 1978.

This is quite typ­i­cal in common-​​law coun­tries, at least. Actually, it’s prob­a­bly worse than it seems, since judge-​​made common-​​law also con­tin­ues beyond its imme­di­ate use, and may be even less acces­si­ble to most peo­ple that leg­isla­tive statutes. And, of course, mul­ti­ply this by 50 states, a few ter­ri­to­ries, and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment, and you’ve got a really big mess!