New Jersey Supreme Court

The New Jersey Supreme Court is one of the most closely watched and well-regarded state courts in the nation, with a reputation for scholarly legal analysis and political independence. And as yesterday's decision opening the door to same-sex marriage showed, it certainly doesn't shy away from the difficult issues of the day. "There's just a long list of cases in which the New Jersey Supreme Court has been in the forefront, and often other states have fallen into place after the New Jersey Supreme Court paves the way," said Sally F. Goldfarb, a law professor at Rutgers School of Law in Camden.

Defense lawyers who unsuccessfully challenged the use of a new device to test drunk drivers in New Jersey have taken their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. After a three-year legal battle, the state Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the Alcotest machine was scientifically reliable and allowed its test results to be used as evidence. The Alcotest has been rolled out across New Jersey to replace the Breathalyzer test. The defense lawyers cannot challenge the ruling that the device is reliable.

At a time when the nation is digesting a stomach-churning lesson in the anxieties of constitutional crisis, it is hard to fathom how any lawmakers, no matter how myopic or arrogant, could sponsor legislation designed to create such a crisis. But that's what New Jersey State Assemblymen Michael Carroll and Guy Talarico did last week. The two Republicans from North Jersey are fed up with the state Supreme Court having the last, or next-to-last, word - especially since the court's word so often defies their druthers.

The feeding tube of a comatose 32-year-old woman will not be removed while the woman's family awaits a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on her case, a family attorney said yesterday The attorney, Paul W. Armstrong, said the family of Nancy Ellen Jobes would wait for the high court's decision on a request for a stay of a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling permitting the removal of the feeding tube. "At the family's request, I have informed the chief clerk (of the Supreme Court)

The stalemate that blocked the renomination of Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz to the New Jersey Supreme Court finally has been broken. Senate Democrats decided Thursday that the time-honored tradition of "senatorial courtesy" does not apply to sitting members of the high court. The decision was a deserved rebuke to state Sen. Peter Garibaldi (R., Middlesex), who had invoked the custom because he disagreed with some of Chief Justice Wilentz's opinions, particularly in the controversial Mount Laurel II case.

The New Jersey Supreme Court stopped a tea-party-backed recall movement against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) Thursday but upheld voters' rights to recall state and local elected officials. Reacting to the defeat, the recall movement's leader said she wasn't finished with trying to unseat the powerful head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "We're not going to lie down and play dead," said Roseann Salanitri of Sussex County. "This court, with a stroke of the pen, violated our New Jersey Constitution.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has decided local authorities must reconsider discipline imposed on a public employee who played the lottery, socialized, and ate breakfast during a long morning break after working less than 15 minutes. In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the court issued its opinion regarding a 17-year employee of the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority who took a work truck to a convenience store in Bellmawr, where he left it parked out front for an hour and 15 minutes while he chatted, played the lottery, and ate. Anthony Stallworth, a pump-station operator, had been fired after authorities used a GPS system to track his whereabouts Nov. 15, 2005.

Contrary to the suggestion in some quarters that the seven-member New Jersey Supreme Court is too activist, the court does not search for issues to resolve. It decides questions only when asked. Most parties that invoke the court's jurisdiction face a high hurdle. Each year, the court receives about 1,400 petitions to act and grants only about 100 (not counting certain cases, such as death-penalty appeals, which are heard as of right). Once the court decides to hear a case, oral argument is scheduled.

The New Jersey Supreme Court yesterday reinstated the murder conviction of a Bucks County businessman found guilty in 2002 of throwing an exotic dancer to her death from a Delaware River bridge. The unanimous decision reversed an appellate court ruling that would have given a new trial to John Denofa, 41, a former Newtown resident. Rachel Siani, 21, a dancer at Diva's International Gentlemen's Club on Route 13 in Bristol Township, was killed in March 2000 after falling 112 feet from the bridge connecting the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Turnpikes.

It's good to see Gov. Christie consider diversity in making his nominations to the New Jersey Supreme Court. But that hardly makes up for the way he treated John E. Wallace, an esteemed jurist and the court's only black justice, who deserved another term. Christie made a historic and bold move with two nominations this week - Bruce Harris, an openly gay African American, and Phillip Kwon, who would become a Korean American on the court if confirmed. Both men are lawyers.

It's good to see Gov. Christie consider diversity in making his nominations to the New Jersey Supreme Court. But that hardly makes up for the way he treated John E. Wallace, an esteemed jurist and the court's only black justice, who deserved another term. Christie made a historic and bold move with two nominations this week - Bruce Harris, an openly gay African American, and Phillip Kwon, who would become a Korean American on the court if confirmed. Both men are lawyers.

"Still fat and ugly, how are you?" is how Roberto Rivera-Soto answers the phone at his new job at the law firm Ballard Spahr. Rivera-Soto, who just finished a seven-year term as a New Jersey Supreme Court justice, has used that line for 20 years, he says, because most people aren't really listening when they ask, "How are you?" He is used to saying what he wants. In December, he wrote an opinion that the seven-member court's seating of a long-term temporary justice was unconstitutional, and said he would abstain from participating in cases.

TRENTON - People who post to online message boards don't have the same protections as mainstream journalists when it comes to keeping their sources secret, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. In a unanimous ruling against a Washington state woman, the court said New Jersey's shield law provides broad protection to the news media and is not limited to traditional outlets such as newspapers and magazines, but does not apply to message board posters. "To ensure that the privilege does not apply to every self-appointed newsperson, the Legislature requires that other means of disseminating news be 'similar' to traditional news sources to qualify for the law's coverage," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for the court in its 5-0 ruling.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has decided local authorities must reconsider discipline imposed on a public employee who played the lottery, socialized, and ate breakfast during a long morning break after working less than 15 minutes. In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the court issued its opinion regarding a 17-year employee of the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority who took a work truck to a convenience store in Bellmawr, where he left it parked out front for an hour and 15 minutes while he chatted, played the lottery, and ate. Anthony Stallworth, a pump-station operator, had been fired after authorities used a GPS system to track his whereabouts Nov. 15, 2005.

New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto issued a statement Wednesday saying he will participate in opinions as long as a temporary justice does not have the ability to affect the outcome of the court's decision. Rivera-Soto had previously said he would not participate in any votes as long as Appellate Judge Edwin Stern served on the court, a statement that drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, including calls for impeachment. "Among the varied reactions . . . a particularly sober, thoughtful, measured, and ultimately persuasive analysis stands out, a voice that has triggered additional reflection on the course I earlier charted," Rivera-Soto wrote Wednesday.

Nathan A. Friedman, 80, of Cherry Hill, a longtime civil plaintiff trial lawyer who handled various high-profile personal-injury cases in South Jersey, died of complications from a long-term illness on Wednesday, Dec. 29, at his home. Mr. Friedman's success in the courtroom was said to be directly tied to his acting experience as a young adult. "He did it with such passion," his son, Joshua, said about his case presentations to juries. "He would take his acting to the jury like how he would take acting to the stage.

TRENTON - Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto has unabashedly gone his own way over the last six years on the New Jersey Supreme Court. The Haddonfield Republican is the top dissenter on the bench, year after year breaking with the majority more than any other justice on decisions spanning matters of corporate liability, eminent domain, and criminal court procedures. "He's a guy who is not shy about expressing his view," said attorney Lawrence Lustberg, who has argued numerous cases before the court.

The political stalemate over filling a vacancy on the New Jersey Supreme Court reached a new low when Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto jumped into what had been a political battle. Rivera-Soto says he won't rule on any cases while a substitute justice sits on the high court. He contends the makeup of the high court with a substitute justice is unconstitutional. But there is precedent for it. His comments have only added to the rancor over the court vacancy. The controversy now involves all three branches of state government, and casts the judiciary in an even more unseemly light.

The New Jersey Supreme Court traveled to Gloucester County on Wednesday to hear cases and to commemorate the $100 million addition to the Justice Complex in Woodbury. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said that the court rarely listened to arguments outside of Trenton but that it had wanted to "help celebrate the magnificent expansion and renovation" of the courthouse. The three-story addition to the Hunter Street courthouse has nine courtrooms, a jury room, and offices that Rabner said are "technologically fit, up-to-date" spaces that would better serve the public.

The New Jersey Supreme Court stopped a tea-party-backed recall movement against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) Thursday but upheld voters' rights to recall state and local elected officials. Reacting to the defeat, the recall movement's leader said she wasn't finished with trying to unseat the powerful head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "We're not going to lie down and play dead," said Roseann Salanitri of Sussex County. "This court, with a stroke of the pen, violated our New Jersey Constitution.