Publications

The Borough of Flemington has made the news recently when it voted to impose an automatic special service charge on all OPRA requests that the Custodian estimates will take over two hours to fulfill. When the Custodian receives such a request, she will provide an estimate to the requestor who will then have to pay one-third of the costs in advance.… Read more

From InsiderNJ: Guest Contributor - Columnist By Joe Hayden, Pashman Stein Walder Hayden… Read more

The Canadian federal government legalized marijuana yesterday when the Cannabis Act was approved by the Senate in a 52-29 vote.… Read more

On June 18, 2018, the NJ Department of Health published for comment its anticipated amendments to the administrative rules for NJ's medical marijuana program. Interested parties will have 60 days to submit comments on the proposed rules.… Read more

We previously wrote about an OPRA lawsuit we filed on behalf of citizen seeking a list of users that various public officials from Glen Rock have blocked from their official Facebook accounts. Today we are happy to report that the suit was successful.… Read more

Speculation has been rampant among those in the media and the political world for the past 24-hours about unrefuted news stories that Michael Cohen, President Trump's long-time personal "lawyer," is about to switch lawyers and whether or not this switch is a signal that he will plead guilty to some charges and incriminate Trump. Before people take too long a lead off first base on this sensational possibility, however, the circumstances suggest to me that Cohen is more likely weighing his options rather than already having crossed the Rubicon.… Read more

Until now, New Jersey's strategy for marijuana legalization has been to address medical marijuana separately from recreational marijuana. Thus, as we have previously reported, Governor Murphy and the Department of Health have been working to rapidly expand the medical program, while the Legislature separately hashes out legislation on full legalization.… Read more

On June 4, 2018, the Appellate Division issued an unpublished OPRA opinion titled Benedetto v Russo and Union County. While the opinion is not binding on lower courts because it is unpublished, we think it is helpful in several ways.… Read more

As James Madison put it, "A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." Free speech is essential to effective self- government. A democracy cannot function if its citizens do not know what their government is doing.… Read more