Court Vindicates Citizens' Rights

In a term punctuated by cases where citizens challenged various aspects of governmental actions, the Supreme Court vindicated citizens’ rights and curtailed government control. From the right to the sanctity of the polling places to the right to speak out at a public meeting, from the right to review confidential governmental settlements of litigation to the right to challenge local legislation through referendum, from the right to challenge governmental takings years after the governmental action had been initiated to preventing the abuse of expenditures from campaign funds, the Supreme Court sided unanimously with the citizens’ position. Finally, in keeping with the Court’s general relaxation of conflicts of interests for attorneys undertaking public sector work, the Court allowed an attorney to represent private taxpayers in tax appeals against a former public sector client.

Citizens 6: Government 0

At the beginning of the 2010 term, in In re: Attorney General’s “Directive on Exit Polling: Media and Non-Partisan Public Interest Groups ,” 200 N.J. 283 (2009), the Supreme Court interpreted New Jersey election laws to bar exit polling, the dissemination of voting rights materials, and other expressive activities within 100 feet of a polling site. The regulation of these activities emerged from a series of Attorney General directives. First, in 1972, the Attorney General advised county election officials that so-called “exit polling” within 100 feet of a polling place was prohibited as a violation of New Jersey’s election laws. In 2006, the Attorney General reversed direction and initially circulated a “draft” directive that permitted exit polling and distribution of voting rights cards within 100 feet outside the entrance to a polling place. The Attorney General sought comments on that draft directive and as a result of those comments, in 2007 issued a revised directive which, while continuing to permit exit polling by both media and nonpartisan entities within 100 feet of a polling place, required that representatives of the media or public interest groups submit a letter to the Board of Elections at least two weeks prior to the election, identifying the polling place where the exit polling was going to be conducted. The county Board of Elections would then provide an authorization letter to the requesting entities. The final 2007 directive, however, prohibited the distribution of materials to voters within that 100-foot zone.