The ACLU of New Jersey represented Charles Kratovil in his lawsuit against New Brunswick challenging the application of Daniel’s Law regarding his ability to report on the truthful, lawfully obtained information regarding an interest of public concern: the residence of the city’s police director more than two hours away.
The ACLU-NJ respects the purpose behind Daniel’s Law to provide protection for our public servants. Those protections are necessarily limited by constitutional principles, including the right to free speech.
In response to the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in Mr. Kratovil’s appeal, the following can be attributed to ACLU-NJ cooperating attorney Alexander Shalom, Partner and Chair, Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest at Lowenstein Sandler LLP:
“In this case, the Court agreed that the information, which Daniel’s Law would otherwise prohibit publishing, concerned a matter of public significance and was lawfully obtained. When the government provides information to the media, the U.S. Supreme Court instructs courts to assume that the government should use other tools to guard against the dissemination of that information and not take the extreme step of punishing truthful speech. We are disappointed that the New Jersey Supreme Court did not follow this precedent when considering the right of our public officials to be protected from violence in their homes, the right of journalists to publish information of public concern, and the right of the public to receive that important information.”
