Noticias

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday punted the destiny of Daniel’s Law to the New Jersey Supreme Court, asking the state’s top court to clarify exactly how much intent, if any, is mandatory to hold data brokers liable for posting private information online.

Writing for a unanimous three-judge circuit court panel, Judge Stephanos Bibas stated that the constitutional question can’t be answered until the state’s highest court determines what the law actually means.

The law was enacted after the horrific assassination of Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas.  A disgruntled lawyer used online databases to track down Salas’ home address, then appeared at her front door disguised as a UPS driver. He opened fire, killing her son and critically injuring her husband in 2020.

“This order marks an important step toward ending years of obstruction by powerful, multi-billion-dollar data brokers,” said State Sen. Joseph Cryan  (D-Union), who sponsored Daniel’s law.   “We’re one step closer to ensuring public servants don’t have to live in fear.”

The appellate panel certified two questions of the New Jersey Supreme Court: Does Daniel’s Law require a mental state — negligence, recklessness, intent — before liability attaches? And if so, which standard applies to which remedies?

Bibas suggested that the answer could make or break the law’s defense. Without a mental-state requirement, Daniel’s Law might be vulnerable to strict scrutiny under the First Amendment; with one, the state might sidestep those pitfalls.

Now the state’s highest court must decide between strict liability – will companies be culpable if they fail to comply within the ten-business-day period, or will they enact a fault-based standard that would hold brokers liable only if they knowingly or recklessly refused requests to remove names.

Daniel’s Law shields the home addresses and unlisted phone numbers of judges, prosecutors, police officers, and other at-risk public officials, along with their immediate family members.  Those individuals may send written notices to websites, data brokers, and other entities demanding their information be removed; failure to comply within ten business days can trigger damages of at least $1,000 per violation, injunctions, and, in “willful or reckless” cases, punitive damages.

Atlas Data Privacy, a private firm that manages Daniel’s Law notices for thousands of subscribers, sued more than 40 data brokers and search firms after repeated refusals to comply. Some of the companies pushed back, calling Daniel’s Law, alleging that it violated their First Amendment rights.

State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch) called the decision “a huge win for decency.”

The post Third Circuit tosses Daniel’s Law fight to N.J. Supreme Court appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

As the controversy over files related to sex predator Jeffrey Epstein continues to plague President Donald Trump’s administration, a new effort to make the Justice Department release the files has garnered the support of New Jersey’s entire Democratic House delegation.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican with an idiosyncratic streak, filed a discharge petition last night that, if it obtains 218 signatures, would circumvent House GOP leaders and force a full House vote on the release of the files. Eight of New Jersey’s House Democrats have already signed on; the ninth, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), hasn’t been back in Washington this week amid her campaign for governor, but her office said she plans to sign as well.

“The truth must come out,” Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) said of the petition.

So far, the petition also has four Republicans on board, two short of the number needed assuming every House Democrat signs. Top House Republicans and the Trump administration have both strongly pushed their members to oppose the petition.

One Republican who won’t be signing on is New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis). Van Drew has been more willing than many of his GOP colleagues to push the Trump administration on the Epstein case and is a co-sponsor of the underlying bill at hand in the discharge petition, but he said that he wants the bill to go through the proper committee process and not vault straight to the House floor.

“I support maximum transparency, and we’ve got to get the information out for the sake of the victims, for the sake of the American people,” Van Drew said today. “However, this is a very, very sensitive issue, and it needs to be done in a proper way. I really support the bill, but it needs to go through the committee process.”

New Jersey’s other two Republican congressmen, Reps. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) and Chris Smith (R-Manchester), have not signed the petition either, and seem unlikely to do so.

The petition is only one of many different efforts across Capitol Hill to get answers on Epstein, a financier who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2019 and died shortly afterwards, apparently by suicide. The House Oversight Committee is conducting an investigation into the case and released thousands of pages of records yesterday, and the House approved a symbolic measure today in support of the committee’s investigation.

For Massie and Democrats – and for survivors of Epstein’s abuse themselves – those efforts aren’t enough, however. At a press conference convened by Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) outside the Capitol today, many of the women who were abused by Epstein demanded that the government release every file it has, both for their own sake and for that of the country.

“This is nothing to do with politics. This is not a blue thing or a red thing – this is an everyone thing,” said Courtney Wild, a survivor who first met Epstein when she was 14. “We need transparency. It’s time for us to see behind the curtain.”

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Esther Suarez, who stepped down last month after a decade as Hudson County executive, has joined one of the state’s most prestigious law firms.

Suarez, a former Superior Court Judge, will be a partner at Cleary Giacobbe Alfieri Jacobs, where she will chair the firm’s White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations

“Prosecutor Suarez is one of the most well-respected and admired legal professionals in the state,” said State Sen. Joseph Lagana (D-Paramus), a principal partner.   The managing partner, Matthew Giacobbe, said that Suarez’s experience, expertise, and reputation make her an outstanding addition.

The first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Hudson County Prosecutor, Suarez ended a notable ten-year tenure as the first Hispanic to hold the post, and after leading efforts to modernize the technological capabilities of her office and reduce incidents of violent crime.

She is also a former Bergen County Counsel and Hoboken Corporation Counsel.

As a prosecutor, Suarez built an in-house DNA laboratory that enabled her investigators to work efficiently and eliminate a months-long backlog, along with a state-of-the-art cybersecurity lab to collect and forensically analyze data and digital footprints for complex investigations.  Suarez also opened a child advocacy center as a welcoming space for children who were victims or witnesses in investigations involving violent crime.

Suarez is also credited with opening the Hudson County Regional Collision Investigation Unit, the Hudson County Regional Arson Task Force, and the Hudson County Regional S.W.A.T.  She joined the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to protect vulnerable youth.

She has championed the establishment of a mental health court and backed criminal justice reform in support of a more equitable judicial system.

During her decade in law enforcement, Suarez made reducing violent crime a top priority in creating safe communities.  Hudson became part of the Violent Crime Initiative, which used federal funds to reduce violent crime in Jersey City.   The homicide unit under Suarez has achieved a 100% solve rate, surpassing the national average of 58%.

She also increased training for investigators and prosecutors and obtained federal grants to upgrade her office’s infrastructure and software.

Suarez spent five years as a Superior Court Judge before three Democratic state senators from Hudson County agreed upon her as their choice for prosecutor in 2015.  She succeeded Guy Gregory, who became acting prosecutor in 2012 after Edward DeFazio stepped down to become a Superior Court Judge.

After the 2020 election, Suarez was considered a leading candidate for U.S. Attorney.

The post Esther Suarez joins N.J. law firm appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, the runner-up in June’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, endorsed Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) for governor on Wednesday.

At the Zion Hill Baptist Church in Newark, Sherrill and Baraka were joined by state Democratic Chairman LeRoy Jones Jr., Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo Jr., and a small crowd of other Democratic officials from the county and state. Baraka, the primary’s most progressive candidate, said he still disagrees with Sherrill on some policies but said Sherrill still represents an opportunity for progress.

“The congresswoman represents our best chance, our best hope, our best opportunity, our best pathway to get to what we want to get to, to get to the place we need to be at,” the mayor told the crowd. 

Sherrill and Baraka met for some time before the event, where they discussed Black maternal health, the racial wealth gap, housing issues, and investments into Black and Brown businesses in New Jersey. He said neither Black voters nor the Democratic Party are monolithic, and politics is about ironing out the policy disagreements. 

Baraka specifically addressed an observation from Politico’s Matt Friedman about differences in policy preferences between the mayor and the congresswoman. For example, the two disagree on how much authority civilian complaint review boards should possess in reviewing allegations of police misconduct: Baraka has pushed to give the groups subpoena power, while Sherrill has said she’s against giving CCRBs that power. 

Baraka said disagreements like that can and should be worked out among Democrats, but also said focus must be placed on defeating Republicans, who he said would govern in a manner antithetical to how Democrats think the state should operate.

“I’d rather argue with the congresswoman about CCRBs than debate about whether the National Guard should be on our streets,” he said. “I would rather have a discourse about very specific issues that I think are important to me, than them thinking that the police should have the ability to do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want.”

When asked whether their conversations changed her mind on any policy issues, Sherrill said she wants to explore new ways of improving Black maternal health, but didn’t mention making any concessions or policy changes over the course of their discussions.

“He has big policy positions and has studied many of these issues as well, and so they’re really good conversations about some of the key ways in which we can move forward,” she said. 

GOP nominee and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli hasn’t received the same support from the runner-up in his primary. Conservative radio host Bill Spadea returned to the microphone at 101.5 this week, and he made clear last week he believes Ciattarelli is “wrong for New Jersey.” Ciattarelli defeated Spadea by more than 40 percentage points. 

Baraka attacked Ciattarelli, arguing that while the Republican is confident and “smooth,” his record in the Legislature was poor. 

“How are you going to help Black businesses when you didn’t help them when you went to the Legislature in the first place?” Baraka said to cheers in the church basement. “How are you going to improve the minimum wage when you voted against increasing the minimum wage when you were a legislator in the first place?”

Turnout in Essex County, especially among Black voters, could be key for Democrats come November, making Baraka’s endorsement key. Baraka defeated Sherrill in Essex County, winning about 40% of the vote and nearly 38,000 votes. 

“We need to produce a huge plurality here in Essex County,” Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo Jr. said. “So those other counties, [if] somebody screws up, we have enough to win the election.”

“I know that the only way we lose this race in New Jersey is if Democrats don’t vote in New Jersey,” Sherrill said. “If we get divided, if we are not together, if we don’t stand up for the things we believe in, the communities we want to serve, that’s the only way we lose.”

Democrats, especially Black voters, have made clear they do not want to be left behind if Sherrill wins the election. On Wednesday, Baraka promised not to let his support be taken for granted.

“I pledge to get out here and fight and organize so that she can become a governor,” Baraka said. “And I pledge that when she is the governor, that she will not see the last of me.”

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