Stuart Jeff Rabner (born June 30, 1960) is an American judge and lawyer who has been the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court since 2007. He previously served as New Jersey Attorney General, chief counsel to Governor Jon Corzine, and as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey.
Background Stuart Jeff Rabner was born in Passaic, New Jersey, on June 30, 1960. He graduated from Passaic High School in 1978, where he was the class valedictorian.Cowen, Richard. "N.J. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner returns to his Passaic High roots with optimistic message", The Record, March 24, 2016. Accessed January 16, 2021. "Rabner, 55, returned to his roots as keynote speaker at the Passaic Optimist Club's Youth Appreciation Awards Dinner. Thirty-eight years ago, he was valedictorian of the high school's Class of 1978 and full of intellectual promise." He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1982 after completing a 172-page long senior thesis titled "A Commitment Compromised: The Treatment of Nazi War Criminals by the United States Government." He then graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1985. He is a resident of Caldwell, New Jersey. He was married in 1989 to Dr. Deborah Ann Wiener, Dr. Wiener Wed To Stuart Rabner, The New York Times, July 3, 1989. and has three children: Erica, Carly, and Jack. In June 2007, he was named the most influential political personality in the state of New Jersey.PoliticsNJ.com Power List 2007 , dated June 20, 2007.
Early career Rabner began his legal career as a judicial law clerk to Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey before joining the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey in Newark in 1986. In the U.S. Attorney's office, he worked in a number of positions including first assistant United States attorney and chief of the terrorism unit in the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. He was chief of the office's criminal division and supervised 100 attorneys and staff, when he was named chief counsel to Governor Corzine in January 2006.Corzine Names Rabner Chief Counsel, press release dated December 14, 2005. He was viewed as a surprise choice for the chief counsel position, as it traditionally goes to individuals with strong political connections and not to career prosecutors. Straight-laced, quick-witted and caring, The Record (Bergen County), December 17, 2005.
New Jersey Attorney General Rabner served as Attorney General of New Jersey in the cabinet of Governor Jon Corzine. He took office as attorney general on September 26, 2006.New Jersey Attorney General biography, version from Internet Archive copied as of April 2, 2007. Accessed December 17, 2007. Rabner was nominated by Governor Corzine on August 24, 2006, to replace former Attorney General Zulima Farber who resigned and left office on August 31, 2006.Corzine names Rabner attorney general The Courier-Post, August 24, 2006. On September 25, 2006, Rabner was confirmed by a 35–0 margin by the New Jersey Senate.Rabner confirmed as attorney general, The Courier-Post, September 26, 2006.
New Jersey Chief Justice On June 4, 2007, Governor Corzine nominated Rabner to be Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, replacing James R. Zazzali, who was nearing the mandatory retirement age."Source: Corzine picks Rabner as chief justice, Milgram as AG", Courier News, May 31, 2007. Accessed May 31, 2007.
Shortly after the nomination, two members of the New Jersey Senate from Essex County, where Rabner resides, blocked consideration of his confirmation by invoking "senatorial courtesy", a Senate tradition that allows home county legislators to intercede to prevent consideration of a nominee from the counties they represent. State Senator Ronald Rice had initially blocked the nomination, but relented on June 15, 2007, after a meeting with the governor.Associated Press. "Opposition Ebbs on Corzine Judge", The New York Times, June 15, 2007. Accessed June 20, 2007. "Ronald L. Rice, an Essex County Democrat and state senator, said yesterday that he would no longer block Gov. Jon S. Corzine's nomination for chief justice of the State Supreme Court." Senator Nia Gill dropped her block on June 19, 2007, but did not initially explain the nature of concerns.Jones, Richard G. "Senator Drops Objections to Corzine Court Nominee", The New York Times, June 20, 2007. Accessed June 20, 2007. "Senator Gill had delayed Mr. Rabner's confirmation hearing by using "senatorial courtesy"an obscure practice through which senators who represent the home county of nominees may block consideration of their confirmations."
With the senators permitting consideration of his nomination, Rabner was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Gill casting the only negative vote. On June 21, 2007, the New Jersey Senate confirmed Rabner as Chief Justice by a 36–1 vote, with Gill again casting the lone dissenting vote.Jones, Richard G. "After One Objection, Senate Confirms Corzine's Choice for Chief Justice", The New York Times, June 22, 2007. Accessed June 22, 2007. "The Senate voted 36 to 1 to confirm Stuart Rabner, who has been attorney general since September 2006 and was Mr. Corzine's chief counsel before that. It also confirmed Anne Milgram, Mr. Rabner's first assistant, to succeed Mr. Rabner as attorney general.... A short time later, she was the only one of 40 senators to vote against Mr. Rabner."
Rabner was sworn in as chief justice on June 29, 2007, with acting Chief Justice Virginia Long administering the oath of office.chief Justice Stuart Rabner , New Jersey Supreme Court. Accessed August 11, 2007. On May 21, 2014, Governor Chris Christie renominated Rabner as chief justice despite their political differences, after a compromise was reached with State Senate Democrats, breaking a longstanding impasse over Supreme Court appointments. The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed the nomination on June 14, 2014.
In 2010, Christopher L. Eisgruber recommended Rabner as a choice to succeed John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court.Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick, "Who Should Replace Justice Stevens?", Slate, (April 10, 2010).
Decisions Chief Justice Rabner authored significant decisions regarding, among other issues, eyewitness identification, the right to privacy, marriage equality, juvenile justice, government transparency, the separation of church and state, fairness in jury selection, and protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Eyewitness identification In 2011, Chief Justice Rabner authored a landmarkN.J. 208 N.J. (N.J. 2011) decision on eyewitness identification evidence in State v. Henderson.Weiser, Benjamin. "In New Jersey, Sweeping Shift on Witness Identifications", The New York Times, August 25, 2011. Accessed June 17, 2012."What Did They Really See? New Jersey's Strict New Rules on Eyewitness Evidence Could Become the National Standard", The New York Times, August 27, 2011. Accessed June 17, 2012. The ruling questioned the longstanding test for admitting eyewitness identifications at trial. Henderson outlined a new standard under the New Jersey Constitution in light of more recent, accepted social science evidence on the risks of misidentification. The following year, the NJ Supreme Court released expanded model jury instructions on eyewitness identifications for use in criminal cases, consistent with the Henderson decision.
Privacy rights In 2013, Chief Justice Rabner broke new legal ground in a decision about the right to privacy in the location of one's cell phone. The opinion in State v. Earls marked the first time a state supreme court found a right of privacy in cell-phone location information. In light of recent advances in technology, the Earls decision noted that cell-phone providers in 2013 can pinpoint the location of a person's cell phone with increasing accuracy. The opinion held that, under the State Constitution, cell-phone users are reasonably entitled to expect confidentiality in the location of their cell phones. As a result, to obtain cell-phone location information, police must obtain a search warrant based on a showing of probable cause or qualify for an exception to the warrant requirement, such as exigent circumstances. In 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that historical cell-phone location information is protected by the Fourth Amendment, and the government must get a search warrant to acquire that type of record.
In 2023, the Supreme Court considered requests made by law enforcement to compel Facebook to provide the contents of users' accounts every 15 minutes for 30 days into the future. The Chief Justice's opinion in Facebook, Inc. v. State of New Jersey, 254 N.J. 329 (2023) concluded that, because the nearly contemporaneous acquisition of electronic communications was the functional equivalent of wiretap surveillance, the protections of the wiretap act applied to safeguard individual privacy rights.
Marriage equality Chief Justice Rabner authored a unanimous decision in 2013 denying the state's application for a stay of a trial court order permitting same-sex couples to marry. Garden State Equality v. Dow The ruling was the first by a state supreme court in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Windsor. Windsor struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and held that DOMA violated the federal constitution by denying lawfully married same-sex couples the benefits given to married couples of the opposite sex. In the wake of that decision, a number of federal agencies extended federal benefits to married same-sex couples but not to partners in civil unions. Under New Jersey state law, same-sex couples could enter into civil unions but could not marry. As a result, the New Jersey Supreme Court concluded that the state constitution's guarantee of equal protection for same-sex couples was not being met; that the harm to same-sex couples was real, not speculative; and that the public interest did not favor a stay. Three days after the ruling, same-sex couples began to marry, and the state withdrew its appeal of the trial court order, effectively ending the litigation.
Juvenile justice In 2017, Chief Justice Rabner authored a significant ruling in the area of juvenile justice. In State v. Zuber & Comer, New Jersey's high court unanimously extended recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and directed that state trial judges consider various factors related to youth before imposing a sentence that is the practical equivalent of life without parole. Years later, in State v. Comer & Zarate,State v. Comer & Zarate, 249 N.J. 359 (2022) authored by the Chief Justice, the court held that juvenile offenders sentenced to a mandatory terms of at least 30 years without parole can petition for review of their sentence after they have served two decades in prison, in order to save the sentencing scheme from constitutional infirmity.
Government transparency Also in 2017, the Chief Justice wrote for a unanimous court that footage from dashboard cameras must be made public when the police use fatal force. In North Jersey Media Group v. Lyndhurst, the court concluded that once the principal witnesses to the shooting have been interviewed, the public's powerful interest in transparency calls for the release of police dash-cam videos under the common law right of access. More detailed investigative reports and witness statements, which if released would impair the integrity of an ongoing investigation, are not ordinarily subject to disclosure while an investigation is underway.
Separation of Church and State