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Reason
Reason
Politics
Eugene Volokh

N.J. Criminal Prosecution of News Reporters for Not Removing Post About Expunged Arrest

From the Motion to Dismiss in State v. Katzgrau, written by Bruce Rosen (Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, P.C.); the analysis seems to me quite correct, and the G.D. v. Kenny decision from the New Jersey Supreme Court strikes me as dispositive:

This case involves a media entity's alleged violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:52-30, which makes it a disorderly persons offense to knowingly reveal the existence of an expunged arrest. The arrest in question was published in the Red Bank Police Department's monthly police blotter report and then republished on the Red Bank Green local news website. Several months after the publication, the arrest was expunged.

The U.S. Supreme Court has stated numerous times that publication of truthful information on matters of public significance cannot be punished unless it involves a state interest of the highest order. But even more significantly, the New Jersey Supreme Court has specifically explained that the media and private citizens cannot be prosecuted under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-30, even if they knowingly disclose or discuss an expunged arrest, because doing so would be a blatant violation of their federal and state constitutional rights of free speech.

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