Due to travel over most of the past two weeks (and getting “back in the game” once having returned), there have been no posts here.  But the courts have been active during that time.  Here, in brief, are some of the key published decisions of the Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, and the Third Circuit: Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, ___ N.J. ___ (2018).  This was a 4-3 decision that reversed a ruling of the Appellate Division, reported at 446 N.J. Super. 163 (App. Div. 2016).  That court, by a 2-1 vote, had held that recordings made by mobile video recorders...

Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO v. New Jersey Civil Service Commission, 234 N.J. 483 (2018).  In one of the biggest constitutional decisions of the current term, an unusually divided Supreme Court today modified and affirmed the decision of the Appellate Division in this Legislative Review Clause case.  The Appellate Division’s decision, which was reported at 447 N.J. Super. 584 (App. Div. 2016), was discussed in detail here. There were two issues:  (1) the standard of judicial review of concurrent resolutions of the Legislature regarding the consistency of administrative...

Sconiers v. United States, 896 F.3d 595 (3d Cir. 2018).  Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §2401(b) (“FTCA”), a tort claim against the United States is “forever barred unless it is presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues or unless action is begun within six months after the date of mailing, by certified or registered mail, of notice of final denial of the claim by the agency to which it was presented” (emphasis added).    Here, plaintiff sued the United States Postal Service within two years of the...