The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in three new appeals. All are from unpublished opinions of the Appellate Division.

In Cowan v. New Jersey State Parole Bd., the question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk’s office, is “On this record of plaintiff’s criminal history and his twenty-one infractions while incarcerated, was the Parole Board’s imposition of a 200-month future eligibility term arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable?” A two-judge panel of the Appellate Division affirmed the 200-month future eligibility term.

The question presented in States Newsroom, Inc. v. City of Jersey City is “If an incident that is the subject of a law enforcement internal affairs report was also the subject of an expungement, can a requester obtain the internal affairs report under the common law right of access, and should the trial court record have been sealed?” The Law Division denied plaintiff’s request that defendants unseal and release certain internal affairs records and that plaintiff be awarded attorneys’ fees. The Appellate Division’s three-judge panel reversed in large part, holding that the Law Division should have reviewed plaintiff’s claim under the common law right of access and that the record should not have been sealed. The panel affirmed, however, on the attorneys’ fee claim, as plaintiff conceded that the common law right of access did not give rise to a right to attorneys’ fees.

Finally, In the Matter of Certificates of Nicholas Cilento, State Board of Examiners, New Jersey Department of Education, presents this question: “Did an arbitrator’s decision to suspend a teacher for three months in a tenure matter brought by a local board of education prevent the State Board of Examiners and Commissioner of Education from imposing a two-year suspension of his teaching certificates for the same conduct?” A two-judge panel of the Appellate Division followed last year’s ruling on the same question in Morison v. Willingboro Bd. of Educ., 478 N.J. Super. 229 (App. Div. 2024), discussed here, and affirmed the ruling of the Commissioner of Education that imposed the two-year suspension.