Stuart Rabner

Stuart Jeff Rabner (born June 30, 1960) is the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

He 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.

Rabner grew up in Passaic, New Jersey, and graduated from Passaic High School in 1978, where he was the class valedictorian.

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.

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.

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

He was married in 1989 to Dr. Deborah Ann Wiener, and has three children: Erica, Carly, and Jack.

He took office as attorney general on September 26, 2006.

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.

On September 25, 2006, Rabner was confirmed by a 35–0 margin by the New Jersey Senate.

After beginning his career as an assistant United States attorney, Rabner 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.

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.

In June 2007, he was named the most influential political personality in the state of New Jersey.

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.

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.

Senator Nia Gill dropped her block on June 19, 2007, but did not initially explain the nature of concerns.

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.

Rabner was sworn in as chief justice on June 29, 2007, with acting Chief Justice Virginia Long administering the oath of office.

In 2010, his name was proposed as a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.

In 2011, Chief Justice Rabner authored a landmark decision on eyewitness identification evidence in State v. Henderson.

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.

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.

Rabner served as Attorney General of New Jersey in the cabinet of Governor Jon Corzine.

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.