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Robert Andrews v. New Jersey

Paid petition · Supreme Court of New Jersey, No. 082209 · judgment August 10, 2020

Certiorari denied · May 17, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

While investigating Petitioner Robert Andrews for state criminal offenses, the prosecutor obtained a court order requiring Petitioner to disclose his passcodes to two iPhones. Respondent State of New Jersey believes the passcodes will enable it to find evidence that Petitioner committed a crime. Petitioner refused to disclose his passwords, invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege against selfincrimination. The Supreme Court of New Jersey held that the Fifth Amendment privilege does not protect Petitioner from being compelled to communicate his memorized passcodes to the government, ruling that the privilege was overcome because the passcodes’ existence, possession, and authentication were “foregone conclusions.” The Question Presented is: Does the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment protect an individual from being compelled to recall and truthfully disclose a memorized passcode, where communicating the passcode may lead to the discovery of incriminating evidence to be used against him in a criminal prosecution?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jennifer Stisa Granick
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation

For respondent
Jeremy Michael Feigenbaum
Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Amicus briefs
4 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. May 17 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Apr 21 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/13/2021.
  3. Apr 20 2021
    Reply of Robert Andrews not accepted for filing. (Dupilicate submission)(April 22, 2021)
  4. Apr 20 2021
    Reply of petitioner Robert Andrews filed. (4/22/2021) (Distributed)
  5. Apr 02 2021
    Brief of respondent State of New Jersey in opposition filed.
  6. Mar 09 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including April 2, 2021.
  7. Mar 08 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from March 19, 2021 to April 2, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
  8. Feb 17 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/5/2021.
  9. Feb 17 2021
    Response Requested. (Due March 19, 2021)
  10. Feb 12 2021
    Waiver of right of respondent State of New Jersey to respond filed.
  11. Feb 12 2021
    Brief amicus curiae of Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey filed.
  12. Feb 12 2021
    Brief amicus curiae of Laurent Sacharoff filed.
  13. Feb 11 2021
    Brief amici curiae of Office of the Public Defender of the State of New Jersey, et al. filed.
  14. Feb 11 2021
    Brief amici curiae of Cordell Institute at Washington University, et al. filed.
  15. Jan 07 2021
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 12, 2021)