NEW JERSEY APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN SECRET EVIDENCE—MAJOR BLOW TO CENSORSHIP
COPIES OF COURT EXHIBITS MUST BE GIVEN TO THE PRESS, PUBLIC 'EXPEDITIOUSLY' WHEN REQUESTED
The Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court holds court in the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton, the Garden State’s Captial. Photo credit: unknown, via Linkedin.
MALONE, NEW YORK Feb. 2, 2026
On the anniversary of the end of New Jersey's "newspaper-of-record," the Star Ledger, a Garden State appeals court delivered a stunning free press victory for the public—including this news blogger.
Judges and court clerks in New Jersey must not just stop keeping evidence submitted in criminal cases secret from the public, they must, when requested, provide copies "expeditiously."
"Evidentiary exhibits filed with the court may be worthy of public attention through news media, and to be relevant, those records should be made available as soon as possible," a three-judge Appellate Division panel of New Jersey's Superior Court ruled on Monday.
The block-buster, 20-page decision represents a striking victory for journalism in the Digital Age, which by now is close to being primarily based on the Internet. In effect, the decision puts bloggers on equal footing as legacy newspapers and TV journalists.
Counting the spiking of new restrictions on journalists and news reporting former New York City Mayor Eric Adams proposed on his way out the door, as a result of The Free Lance's reporting, the appeals court’s decision is the second time in less than a month The Free Lance has successfully defended freedom of the press.
The New Jersey appeals court decision stands in marked contrast to a Jan. 15 decision by the Appellate Division in New York that rubberstamped censorship. The decision allows police and prison guards—including the prison guards who murdered inmate Robert Brooks—to cover-up their crimes.
The Free Lance filed the appeal that led to the decision in New Jersey after a judge and court clerk there refused to provide it with copies of evidentiary exhibits that prosecutors and defense counsel submitted in a pre-trial detention hearing in a criminal case held in Dec. 2023. The judge who presided over that hearing, Barbara Buono-Stanton, held the defendant without bail for trial.
In denying The Free Lance News's request for copies of the exhibits, judge Buono-Stanton explained she felt the need to "put a little reality check to this."
If she didn't, she worried out loud during a March 2024 court hearing, "I would be letting anyone, anyone write a letter to the court saying, 'I want to see this, this, and this.'"
But the appeals court rejected judge Buono-Stanton's attempt to restrict public access to what it ruled were "public records."
"Individuals, citizens, the press, commercial entities, and persons representing various interest groups," all have the right to request copies of evidentiary exhibits submitted in criminal cases, the ruling says.
In addition to his request to judge Buono-Stanton for the hearing exhibits, The Free Lance News also asked the court clerk for copies of the exhibits. A New Jersey court rule specifically says exhibits are public records members of the public have a right to review and copy.
But the clerk got around having to comply with the rules by saying the exhibits had been returned to the prosecution. The Free Lance News filed an appeal with the clerk's supervisor, the director of New Jersey's Administrative Office of the Courts, who likewise said he could not provide copies of the exhibits because they had been returned.
Even if true, the Appellate Division ruled, court clerks and judges have the power to order prosecutors and defense lawyers to return evidentiary exhibits to fulfill requests by the public for copies, "at least through the exhaustion of time to appeal."
"We therefore reverse the Director's denial of Nicholas' request for public access to the evidentiary exhibits,' the decision says. "We remand with directions that Nicholas be given immediate access to those exhibits."
The court also wrote to "provide guidance on how a request for public access should be made and addressed" going forward.
"A person seeking access to public records can pursue several avenues," the court said, including (1) the common law right of access, (2) the First Amendment right of access, (3) the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and (4) Rule 1:38 of the New Jersey Court Rules.
"No rule or case law states that one avenue needs to be pursued before the other," according to the decision. They may be "pursued simultaneously."
Nevertheless, a person seeking to review or copy court records "in the normal course" should first make a request to the court clerk's office in the county where the court proceeding was held.
The clerk must respond to the request "expeditiously."
“We trust,” the decision adds, “that the Administrative Office of the Courts will implement policies to ensure timely production of court records."
If a clerk denies or delays a request, the requestor can then file a formal legal request—called a motion—to intervene in the court case that created the records the requestor seeks. At which point, the judge presiding over that case must facilitate the records delivery "as soon as possible." If a prosecutor or defense lawyer has any objection, they must make that objection to the judge and the requestor.
The party objecting to public release bears the evidentiary burden to proving "the need for confidentiality." There are no blanket exceptions to public access; requests for restrictions must be judged on a case-by-case and document-by-document basis.
If a judge determines restrictions of a particular exhibit or court record are justified, "it should be done in a constrained manner through redactions or editing, if possible," the appeals court instructed.
Officially, the ruling is named Matter of the Application of JB Nicholas, a/k/a The Free Lance News, for a Judgment Pursuant to NJ CT R 1:38, Granting Public Access to Evidentiary Exhibits Submitted in a Criminal Case, Nos. A-2265-23, A-2263-23.
For tips or corrections, The Free Lance can be reached at jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me.