Client Advisory

The New Jersey Supreme Court defended the constitutionality of Daniel’s Law as applied to protect the home address of a police director from publication, even in a news story of legitimate public interest.

Daniel’s Law, passed in honor of a judge’s son who was shot and killed at his family home, protects current and former judges, police officers, prosecutors, and child protective investigators, as well as their immediate family members residing in the same household. The law empowers such people to send notice to those in possession of their home address or phone number, requiring them to refrain from disclosing that information. The law imposes criminal penalties for reckless or knowing disclosures of such information after due notice.

In Kratovil v. City of New Brunswick, Kratovil, the editor of a local news outlet in the City of New Brunswick, challenged Daniel’s Law as it applied to his intended disclosure of information relating to Caputo, a retired police officer and the Police Director and a Parking Authority Commissioner for the city. Kratovil obtained Caputo’s home address from Caputo’s voting profile at the Board of Elections in the City of Cape May and sought to publish a story arguing that Caputo could not properly administer to New Brunswick while living two hours away. After Kratovil shared Caputo’s address at a meeting of the New Brunswick City Council, Caputo sent Kratovil a notice pursuant to Daniel’s Law requesting that Kratovil cease the disclosure of his information. Kratovil filed suit arguing that Daniel’s Law is unconstitutional as applied to him under the freedom of speech and press guarantees of Article I, Paragraph 6 of the N.J. Constitution, and seeking injunctions barring the imposition of criminal or civil penalties against him for publishing Caputo’s full home address.

In affirming the decisions of the trial court and the Appellate Division, the N.J. Supreme Court was guided by the principles set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co., 443 U.S. 97, 98, 102-03 (1979) and Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524, 530 (1989).

Applying the Daily Mail framework, the Court found that, first, Caputo’s home address was truthful, lawfully obtained, and related to a matter of public concern—namely, the issue of whether he lived too far away to effectively discharge his public duties. Second, the Court found that Daniel’s Law serves a state interest of the highest order—the safety and security of certain public officials in the justice system. Third, the Court found that Daniel’s Law is “carefully calibrated” to serve the state interest “by the least restrictive means,” as it is limited to discrete categories of public officials viewed to be at particular risk, implicates only addresses and phone numbers, and imposes no liability for publishing such information unless and until a covered person invokes the protection of the law by providing notice. Further, it is not so underinclusive and inadequate as to be struck down for that reason.