CJ Griffin Helps Secure NJ Supreme Court Victory Strengthening Government Transparency Under OPRA
CJ Griffin, partner and director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., recently argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court on behalf of amicus curiae the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and Libertarians for Transparent Government in a case about whether email logs from the personal accounts of government officials are subject to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). On June 11, 2026, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that such email logs are subject to access.
This ruling is particularly significant because it affirms that public agencies cannot circumvent OPRA’s transparency by conducting official business through personal email accounts. The Court made clear that such communications remain subject to OPRA, strengthening transparency and accountability in the state.
"This decision sends a strong message to public agencies from a unanimous Supreme Court: government employees and elected officials must not use personal email accounts to conduct government business. If they do, those emails (and logs of emails) will still be subject to public access under OPRA. There is no evading OPRA's promise of transparency," Griffin told New Jersey Monitor.
“Today’s decision was a great vindication of the public’s right to monitor the actions of its government. My hope is that the public agencies will follow the Supreme Court’s unanimous instruction that government employees and officials should not use personal email accounts to conduct government business,” Griffin told NJ Spotlight News.
To read the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision, click here.
To read the article, “NJ High Court Urges Officials Not to Use Personal Email for Government Business”, in the New Jersey Monitor, click here.
To read the article, “NJ High Court Gives Transparency Advocates a Win in Records Lawsuit,” in NJ Spotlight News, click here.
To read more about CJ Griffin and her work, click here.
