New Jersey Republican State Committee v. Murphy, ___ N.J. ___ (2020). As discussed here, the Supreme Court directly certified a challenge to the recently adopted COVID-19 Emergency Bond Act. After hearing oral argument last week, the Court moments ago issued a unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Rabner that upheld the constitutionality of the Act. The Court’s 57-page opinion described in detail the history, going back to the 1844 Constitution, of key provisions of the current 1947 New Jersey Constitution at issue: the Appropriations Clause of Article VIII, section 2, paragraph 2, the...

State v. Andrews, ___ N.J. ___ (2020). In a 4-3 decision that produced lengthy majority and dissenting opinions, the Supreme Court held that it does not violate a criminal defendant’s Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination or any New Jersey statutory or common law rights to compel the defendant to reveal the passcode to his cellphone. Justice Solomon wrote the majority opinion, in which Chief Justice Rabner and Justices Patterson and Fernandez-Vina joined. The dissent was by Justice LaVecchia, joined by Justices Albin and Timpone. The State had a concededly valid warrant...

The power outage resulting from last week’s storm put a crimp in much of that week. So it is time once again to catch up with our Supreme Court and Appellate Division, each of whom took highly consequential actions during that time. Some of those are summarized below. State v. G.E.P., ___ N.J. ___ (2020). This case (actually, four consolidated cases) addressed whether and to what extent the Court’s decision in State v. J.L.G., 234 N.J. 265 (2018), should apply retroactively. In J.L.G., the Court “reassessed” its prior decision in State v. J.Q., 130 N.J. 554 (1993),...