• by Ray Schultz , July 14, 2023

The New Jersey Supreme Court is set to hear a case that will determine if towns can refuse to release email addresses on privacy grounds, or if they have to provide them to groups that request them. 

This follows a decision by the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, ruling against the groups.

The court said, in part, that “members of the public who submit their email addresses to receive electronic newsletters and notices from a municipality have an objectively reasonable expectation that their email addresses will not be disclosed to a non-government organization that intends to send unsolicited emails to them to further the organization's 4 political and social objectives.” 

The case has its origin in requests by Rise Against Hate (RAH) and Asian Hate Crimes Task Force (AHCTF), for email addresses for use in campaigns. Andrew Jung filed the request on behalf of both groups. 

For its part, RAH “intended to use the lists to send “unsolicited emails concerning RAH’s activities, investigations, and other matters relating to the civil rights of historically marginalized communities,” the appellate court writes. 

However, Nancy Saffos, the records custodian for Cherry Hill, denied the requests, and the groups sued, citing the  Open Public Records Act (OPRA). 

In June 2021, a trial court ordered disclosure of the email addresses. saying that this would not violate subscribers’ privacy.  

The court also commented that disclosure of email addresses would be “less invasive of privacy than the disclosure of home addresses.”

But in March 2023, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, ruled that “the interest in maintaining the privacy of the email addresses on the subscriber lists outweighs any interest RAH and AHCTF have in accessing that information.”

Officials announced this week that the Supreme Court will hear the case, New Jersey Monitor reports.