Supreme Court seems to favor Jersey in dispute with New York over port watchdog

FILE - A view of shipping containers at Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, a major component of the Port of New York and New Jersey, on Feb.

17, 2023. (Photo by Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court seemed ready Wednesday to allow New Jersey to withdraw from a commission the state created decades ago with New York to combat the mob's influence at their joint port.During arguments at the high court both liberal and conservative justices suggested that the Garden State doesn't need New York's consent to withdraw from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

The commission was created in 1953 when organized crime had infiltrated the port and was demanding payments from workers and shippers through extortion and violence.The two-member commission — with one commissioner from each state — oversees licensing and inspections at the Port of New York and New Jersey and has its own police force.The commission's formation followed by several decades the creation of the vastly bigger Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees transportation infrastructure in the region.Prosecutors say the alleged mastermind behind the murder of reputed mobster, Sylvester Zottola, and the attempted hit on one of his sons, Salvator Zottola, was Anthony Zottola, Sylvester’s other son.Chief Justice John Roberts at one point during argument said it seemed to him that after 70 years of the Waterfront Commission's operation "it's going to take a long time and hard work to kind of unravel all of this" if New Jersey wants to walk away.At another point, however, Roberts distinguished the Port Authority from the Waterfront Commission, which he called a "very important but relatively small enterprise.