Yesterday, the full New Jersey Senate confirmed Fabiana Pierre-Louis to a seat as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. As was the case at the Judiciary Committee, the vote for confirmation was unanimous. Senators of both parties had justifiably high praise for the nominee. Justice Pierre-Louis is the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. She also represents the beginnings of a generational change, since every other current Justice is age 60 or older. Currently 39 years old, Justice Pierre-Louis has the potential to sit on the Court for over three decades. Justice...

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),...