CJ Griffin Quoted in Law360 Regarding Privacy and Due Process Issues Raised by the Use of Infant Blood by Law Enforcement Throughout the Country
CJ Griffin, Director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, was quoted in Law360 article “NJ Suit Shines Light On Police Use Of Infant Blood In Probes.” The article discusses concerns about privacy and due process when blood samples taken from infants at birth for mandatory health screening are subpoenaed by law enforcement as part of a criminal investigation, as well as the results of Law360’s investigation as to whether health departments throughout the country were subpoenaed for such information. Griffin is representing the Office of the Public Defender and the New Jersey Monitor in a lawsuit filed pursuant to the Open Public Records Act as a result of the use of such blood samples to charge a child’s father with a crime in New Jersey.
With the assistance of C.J. Griffin of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden PC, [a specialist] in litigation under New Jersey's open records law, the Office of the Public Defender sued, arguing that the Health Department violated the Open Public Records Act and common law by refusing to release the records.
"We've asked for them to be redacted so that we don't know which newborn they've subpoenaed and which investigation it's for, and that sort of thing, but rather, just so that we can count the number of subpoenas that there are," Griffin told Law360. "I think that it was sort of alarming that there was such secrecy and that they wouldn't even tell us how many times law enforcement is doing it. They could have just told us and there wouldn't have been a lawsuit."
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