New Jersey ? New Jersey’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that towns cannot ban sex offenders from living near schools, parks or other places where children gather.

The court struck down two municipal ordinances that restricted where convicted sex offenders could live, a ruling that invalidates similar laws in more than 100 other towns across the state.

The two cases, in Cherry Hill and Galloway townships in southern New Jersey, highlighted Megan’s Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register their whereabouts with law enforcement.

The broader issue, though, centered on whether towns have the authority to pass ordinances that may conflict with state laws.

All 50 states have some version of Megan’s Law, but the cases decided Thursday are the first of their type to reach a state Supreme Court, said Frank Corrado, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who represented the unidentified plaintiff in Galloway Township. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Vermont this week challenging a similar ordinance in the town of Barre, near Montpelier.