John Hoffman, Nominee for the Supreme Court, Clears the Senate Judiciary Committee | NJ Appellate Law Blog – NJ Appellate Lawyer Bruce D. Greenberg blogs about Appeals and Appellate Law Practice

As discussed here, Governor Murphy nominated John Hoffman to fill the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Solomon, who reached mandatory retirement this summer. It took until now, over three months from the announcement of the nomination, for the Senate to begin to take action on that. Unfortunately, that meant that the Supreme Court opened the current Term and heard some cases with only six Justices sitting.

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send the Hoffman nomination to the full Senate. Approval there is expected to occur on Monday.

According to press reports, Senators from both parties had only positive things to say about John Hoffman, an encouraging display of bipartisanship of the type that would ideally be justified by every judicial nomination. Mr. Hoffman is an independent who served as Attorney General under a Republican Governor and has now been nominated for the Supreme Court by a Democratic Governor. All that meant that, from a purely political perspective only, and apart from the nominee’s evident credentials, neither party should have had any objections.

"Hot Fun in the Summertime": Appellate Division Summer Parts

In an Order available here, Chief Justice Rabner announced the lineup for the Appellate Division's summer Parts. As has been customary, the "summer" runs not between the meteorological start and end dates for summer, nor from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but from June 16 through September 7....

The Supreme Court Confirms That Municipalities Can be Subjected to Sanctions for Frivolous Litigation

Borough of Englewood Cliffs v. Trautner, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). This appeal presented the question of whether municipalities can be liable to pay sanctions for frivolous litigation, under the Frivolous Litigation Statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:15-59.1 ("the FLS"). In a 5-0 opinion written by Justice Fasciale (Chief Justice Rabner and Justice Hoffman did not participate), the Court affirmed, as modified, the decision of the Appellate Division that upheld the Law Division's imposition of FLS sanctions against the Borough....

The "Castle Doctrine"

State v. Bragg, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). A jury found defendant guilty of twelve charged counts, including attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, endangering, and two lesser-included offenses of harassment. Some of those charges involved the use of deadly force. Persons may not use deadly force if the can retreat with complete safety. But under the "castle doctrine," an exception to the general rule, a person "is not obliged to retreat from his dwelling, unless he was the initial aggressor." N.J.S.A. 2C:3-4(b)(2)(b)(i). That doctrine derives from the common law....

No Arbitrariness in Rejection of Public Construction Bid That Failed to Include a Properly Signed, Required Consent of Surety

In the Matter of Protest Filed by El Sol Contracting and Construction Corp., Contract T100.638, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). This public bidding case resulted in a 5-2 split at the Supreme Court, the first non-unanimous ruling of the current Term. Justice Hoffman wrote the majority opinion, while Justice Fasciale authored the dissent for himself and Justice Pierre-Louis....