Title 38A: Military and Veterans Law

Section 1: Legal Paraphrase

Title 38A, New Jersey's "Military and Veterans Law," supplies the statutory architecture for the State's own military forces and for State-level veterans' programs. It defines the militia — including the Army and Air National Guard — and designates the Governor as commander-in-chief, empowered to order the militia to active duty in cases of insurrection, riot, natural disaster, or imminent danger to public safety (N.J.S.A. 38A:1-1, 38A:2-1, 38A:2-4). The Title organizes the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs under the Adjutant General (N.J.S.A. 38A:3-1, 38A:3-3) and authorizes the Adjutant General, under the Governor's direction, to activate National Guard members — with or without pay, upon the member's consent — to aid localities whose public health, safety, or welfare is threatened (N.J.S.A. 38A:3-6.1). It also supplies core definitions ("armed forces," "active duty," "National Guard") that other statutes incorporate, and it administers the veterans' memorial homes, memorials, and coordination of services for veterans and their families.

Section 2: ELI-10 Explanation

Imagine the National Guard as New Jersey's very own team of citizen-soldiers — the grown-ups who leave their regular jobs to help when something goes badly wrong, like a giant flood, a riot, or a dangerous storm. Title 38A is the big rulebook that says who is on that team, who gets to be the boss of it (the Governor), and exactly when the team can be called in to help keep people safe. The rulebook also sets up the special state office that takes care of veterans — the people who served in the military — including the homes where older veterans live. And here is the cool part: other rulebooks for everyday things, like unemployment money, borrow words from this one, so a parent who must quit a job because the family is moving for military duty can still get help. One rulebook quietly helps another.

Section 3: General Application & Case Example 1

How It Is Applied

In practice, Title 38A operates as an organizational and emergency-response statute. It governs the New Jersey National Guard and the State's militia system, and it fixes the chain of command: the Governor is commander-in-chief, the Adjutant General heads the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA), and the DMVA administers veterans' services such as the veterans' memorial homes, memorials, and the State's coordination of federal veterans' programs. Its operative mechanisms are grants of discretionary authority — for example, the power to order the militia to active duty in emergencies (N.J.S.A. 38A:2-4) and the power to activate Guard members to aid localities whose health, safety, or welfare is endangered (N.J.S.A. 38A:3-6.1) — plus statutory definitions that other Titles incorporate and duties imposed on State officials. Because the Title is largely administrative, it most often reaches the courts indirectly: when the Governor invokes emergency powers that cite its activation provisions, or when unrelated statutes borrow its definitions. Individuals affected include service members, veterans, and the state agencies and localities that request or receive military assistance.

Case Example

• Case Name & Citation: Kravitz v. Murphy, No. A-1584-20 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div., decided July 20, 2021) (published opinion)
• Audit note (2026-08-31): this case does not construe N.J.S.A. 38A:3-6.1. The opinion mentions that section only in a footnote and states: "Since these statutes clearly do not apply to the actions the Governor took in EO 128, the parties' briefs did not address either statute." The decision turns on the Emergency Health Powers Act (N.J.S.A. 26:13-1 to -31), the Civil Defense and Disaster Control Act (N.J.S.A. App. A:9-30 to -63), and the Security Deposit Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8-19 et seq.). It is offered here as background on executive emergency powers, not as authority on Title 38A.
• Statute Applied: N.J.S.A. 38A:3-6.1 (authority of the Adjutant General, under the Governor's direction, to order National Guard members to active duty to aid localities) and N.J.S.A. 38A:2-4 (authority of the Governor to order the militia to active duty in cases of insurrection, riot, natural disaster, or imminent danger to public safety)
• Brief Summary: Landlords challenged Executive Order No. 128 (2020), issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed residential tenants to apply their security deposits toward rent. The order cited, among its authorities, N.J.S.A. 38A:3-6.1 and N.J.S.A. 38A:2-4 — the National Guard and militia activation provisions. The Appellate Division upheld the order as a valid exercise of the Governor's powers under the Disaster Control Act and construed the two Title 38A provisions as governing activation of the National Guard and militia, concluding that they "clearly do not apply" to landlord-tenant measures such as security-deposit rules. The court thus recognized, in the context of a real statewide emergency, both the availability and the limits of the Title's military-activation authority.
• Source Link: https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/appellate-division-published/2021/a1584-20.html

Section 4: ELI-10 Application & Case Example 2

Real World Example (Explained Simply)

Think of a family where one parent is a soldier. The military suddenly says, "You are being transferred to another state." The soldier's spouse has a good job here in New Jersey but quits it to move with the family. Without help, that spouse would get no unemployment money, because leaving a job "on purpose" usually disqualifies a person. So New Jersey's unemployment rulebook has a special exception: if you quit your job to follow your spouse who is an active member of the "United States Armed Forces" — a phrase whose meaning comes from Title 38A, the military rulebook (N.J.S.A. 38A:1-1(g)) — you can still receive benefits. That is how a definition inside the military rulebook quietly helps real families in everyday life: one law points to another, and the military law supplies the meaning of the words.

Case Example

• Case Name & Citation: Haley v. Board of Review, No. A-4973-17T2 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div., decided January 24, 2020) (published opinion; reversed on other grounds, Haley v. Bd. of Review, 245 N.J. 511 (2021))
• Statute Applied: N.J.S.A. 38A:1-1(g) (definition of "Armed forces"), as incorporated by N.J.S.A. 43:21-5(k) of the Unemployment Compensation Law
• Brief Summary: Clarence Haley was denied unemployment benefits after his employer terminated him while he was detained pretrial on charges that were later dismissed. The Appellate Division affirmed, holding that his separation was "voluntary" under the Unemployment Compensation Law. In construing the statute's exceptions, the court examined N.J.S.A. 43:21-5(k), which permits benefits where an individual left work to accompany a spouse who is "an active member of the United States Armed Forces, as defined in N.J.S.A. 38A:1-1(g)," and reasoned that these legislatively created exceptions would be unnecessary if, as Haley argued, every departure for reasons unrelated to the employer were treated as non-voluntary. The case illustrates how courts apply Title 38A's definitions when other statutes incorporate them. (The New Jersey Supreme Court later reversed on different grounds, holding that pretrial detention is not an automatic bar to unemployment benefits.)
• Source Link: https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/appellate-division-published/2020/a4973-17.html