Fred Burnett, Plaintiff-Appellant v. County of Bergen and Bergen County Clerk’s Office, Defendants-Respondents

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed the lower court’s order requiring the Bergen County Clerk to redact Social Security numbers from the bulk realty records requested by Data Trace and to charge the plaintiff for the cost of redaction, while vacating the watermark requirement as moot. The Court applied a balancing test under OPRA and declined to address the constitutional privacy claim. Justice ALBIN’s dissent argues that the statute mandates disclosure without redaction.