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),...

Bank Leumi U.S. v. Kloss, ___ N.J. ___ (2020). As discussed here, this was a case involving a certified question from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and for the second time in the last month, Justice Fernandez-Vina wrote the Court’s opinion. The certified question was “When a party filed, in lieu of an answer, a motion to dismiss under Rule 4:6-2(e) for failure to state a claim, and the court dismissed with prejudice, is that party subject to claim preclusion when—in a later suit that it files arising from the same transactional facts—the defendant asserts the entire...