NJ Appellate Law Blog – NJ Appellate Lawyer Bruce D. Greenberg blogs about Appeals and Appellate Law Practice

No Civil Rights Act Claim by Demoted Municipal Employee Where He Did Not Actually Exercise First Amendment Rights

Heffernan v. City of Paterson, 777 F.3d 147 (3d Cir. 2015). [Disclosure: Victor A. Afanador and Susana Cruz Hodge, my colleagues at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC, represented the successful appellees...

A "Bright-Line Directive": Post-Verdict, Ex Parte Communications Between a Judge and Jury Are Always Forbidden

Davis v. Husain, 220 N.J. 270 (2014). "Post-verdict ex parte communication between the trial court and jurors cannot be countenanced." That is the holding of today's opinion, for a unanimous Supreme...

Co-Op Owner Has Free Speech Right to Leaflet as Part of Campaign for Co-Op Board Seat

Dublirer v. 2000 Linwood Avenue Owners, Inc., 220 N.J. 71 (2014). In State v. Schmid, 84 N.J. 585 (1980), and New Jersey Coalition Against War in the Middle East v....

No Sufficient Findings Below, So No Appellate Ruling on Constitutional Challenge to Advance Voter Registration Statute

Rutgers University Student Assembly v. Middlesex Cty. Bd. of Elections, 438 N.J. Super. 93 (App. Div. 2014). Plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of N.J.S.A. 19:31-6.3b, which, as Judge Haas described it...

Veterans Day, and Free Speech

Today is Veterans Day, which currently is made a federal holiday by 5 U.S.C. §6103(a) and a state holiday by N.J.S.A. 36:1-1. The holiday began as Armistice Day, since it was...

Supreme Court Will Review State v. Buckner (Recall Judges Case)

Yesterday, as expected, the Supreme Court announced that an appeal as of right has been filed, and had been accepted by the Supreme Court, in State v. Buckner, 437 N..J....

Full Faith and Credit, and Gun Permits

In re Denial of Application of Winston for a Firearms Purchaser Identification Card, 438 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2014). George Winston, Jr. applied to the Police Chief in Clifton, New...

Retroactive Application of Sex Offender Monitoring Act Violates Ex Post Facto Clauses

Today's post is another guest post by Jeffrey A. Shooman, my colleague at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC. Riley v. New Jersey State Parole Bd., 219 N.J. 270 (2014). In a...

Supreme Court Guideline Barring Lawyers From Posting Accurate Quotes From Judges on Law Firm Websites is Invalid

Dwyer v. Cappell, 762 F.3d 275 (3d Cir. 2014). Andrew Dwyer is a lawyer who handles plaintiffs' employment law litigation. Evidently, some judges have said favorable things about him in...

Supreme Court Says Hoboken City Clerk Violated New Jersey Civil Rights Act

Tumpson v. Farina, 218 N.J. 450 (2014). [Disclosure: Victor A. Afanador and Jeffrey A. Shooman, my colleagues at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC, represented the municipal defendants in this case]. The Appellate Division in...

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An Arbitration Case and a Cannabis Land Use Appeal for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new appeals. One of those is from a published Appellate Division decision, while the other appeal is from an unpublished opinion of a two-judge Appellate Division panel....

Murder Trial Judge Inadequately Addressed Juror Misconduct, Requiring Remand to Determine Whether Jury Was Tainted

State v. Byrd, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Justice Noriega authored the Court's unanimous opinion in this case today. During the murder trial that led to this appeal, allegations of misconduct by a certain juror, No. 8, surfaced. That juror allegedly conducted outside research, discussed the case with third parties, texted one of the defendants, and expressed an intent to find defendants guilty. The trial judge questioned Juror No. 8, but on appeal from defendants' convictions, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court's inquiry "was insufficiently tailored to the allegations against the juror, failed to probe into the heart of the allegations, and was therefore inadequate." The Court remanded the case for further proceedings....

Attorney General's Supersession of the Paterson Police Department Was Not Arbitrary, Capricious, or Unreasonable

Bulur v. Office of the Attorney General, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). In 2023, after a fatal shooting by Paterson police officers, the New Jersey Attorney General announced on March 27, 2023 that his office was superseding (that is, taking over responsibility for) the Paterson Police Department. Lawsuits were filed and transferred to the Appellate Division. In an opinion reported at 480 N.J. Super. 395 (App. Div. 2024), and summarized here, the Appellate Division voided the supersession. Today, the Supreme Court reversed in a unanimous opinion by Justice Patterson....

Sentencing Counsel's Limited Investigation of Defendant's Citizenship Was Not Constitutionally Ineffective in the Circumstances

State v. Hernandez-Peralta, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Justice Wainer Apter's decision today for a 5-2 Supreme Court majority began by phrasing the issue presented. "In this appeal, we consider whether sentencing counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to investigate defendant's citizenship status beyond asking him if he was a United States citizen and receiving an unequivocal ‘yes,' and therefore not advising him that his plea could make him subject to deportation." The majority found, based on the particular facts, that counsel was not constitutionally ineffective, reversing the two lower courts. Justice Noriega, joined by Justice Fasciale, dissented....