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, ___ N.J. ___ (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...

The State Senate yesterday voted to confirm Justice Patterson for tenure on the Supreme Court.  She can now serve until age 70, the age of mandatory retirement.  Her current term was to expire on September 1. This blog endorsed Justice Patterson for tenure, as discussed here.  It is good to see that Governor Murphy, a Democrat, and the Senate, which has a Democratic majority, elevated quality over partisanship in, respectively, nominating and confirming Justice Patterson, a Republican, for tenure.  That action was in the best New Jersey tradition, which has been observed almost uniformly...