Arthur J. Sills (October 19, 1917 – December 26, 1982) was the

Attorney General of New Jersey The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confirmed by the New Jersey Senate, and term limited ...

from 1962 to 1970. As New Jersey's top law enforcement official, Sills championed an expanded state police, civil right and stronger laws on gun control.

Early life and education

Sills was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1917, and his family moved to

Perth Amboy, New Jersey Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy has a Hispanic majority population. In the 2010 census, th ...

in 1921.Official bio
Office of the

. Accessed March 21, 2008. He contracted polio when he was four years old and later traveled to

Warm Springs, Georgia Warm Springs is a city in Meriwether County, Georgia, United States. The population was 425 at the 2010 census. History Warm Springs, originally named Bullochville (after the Bulloch family, which began after Stephen Bullock moved to Meriwethe ...

for treatment. There he befriended

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, who was receiving treatment for his paralytic illness."AG Flashback: Arthur J. Sills"
PolitickerNJ.com, July 27, 2006. Accessed March 21, 2008. Sills graduated from

Perth Amboy High School Perth Amboy High School (or PAHS) is a four-year comprehensive community public high school which serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Perth Amboy in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary ...

in 1934. He received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

in 1938 and a law degree at Harvard Law School in 1941. He joined the law firm of former Attorney General David T. Wilentz, former

, from 1941 to 1950. From 1950 to 1962, he was a partner in the Perth Amboy firm of Wilentz, Goldman, Spitzer & Sills.

Attorney General

Sills was appointed by Governor

Richard J. Hughes Richard Joseph Hughes (August 10, 1909December 7, 1992) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge. A Democrat, he served as the 45th governor of New Jersey from 1962 to 1970, and as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1973 to ...

. He was confirmed by the New Jersey Senate and sworn in on January 16, 1962, the day of Hughes's inauguration. As Attorney General in the two Hughes administrations, Sills championed civil rights and strong gun control legislation.

Civil Rights controversies

Sills was criticized by civil rights groups for defending a warrantless search for stolen guns by 300 heavily armed New Jersey State Police and National Guardsmen during the

1967 Plainfield riots The Plainfield riots was one of 159 race riots that swept cities in the United States during the " Long Hot Summer of 1967". This riot was a series of racially charged violent disturbances that occurred in Plainfield, New Jersey, which mirror ...

. The search was carried out without warrants under a declaration of emergency by Governor Hughes. The search was called off when residents protested that their homes were being damaged."Arthur J. Sills, Attorney General in Jersey from 1962 to 1970, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', December 28, 1982. Accessed March 21, 2008. Sills also came under fire from the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

for writing a memorandum in the wake of the

1967 Newark riots The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey, United States. Taking place over a four-day period (between July 12 and July 17, 1967), the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and ...

encouraging state police to compile detailed dossiers on people taking part in demonstrations."Big Brother in New Jersey"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'', June 15, 1970. Accessed March 21, 2008.

Law firm

After leaving office, Sills founded his own firm based in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Sills Cummis & Gross). He represented

James Florio James Joseph Florio (August 29, 1937 – September 25, 2022) was an American politician who served as the 49th governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994. He was previously the U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 1st congressional district from ...

during the recount for the 1981 gubernatorial election. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of New Jerey's Anti-Defamation League. In 1982 he died of a stroke at the age of 65.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sills, Arthur J. 1917 births 1982 deaths Rutgers University alumni Harvard Law School alumni People with polio Perth Amboy High School alumni Politicians from Perth Amboy, New Jersey New Jersey Attorneys General 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians