The New Jersey Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in In re the Matter Concerning the State Grand Jury (089571). The closely watched case centers on whether a grand jury has the authority to investigate the Catholic Church’s handling of sex abuse allegations.
Facts of the Case
In 2018, then-Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced the Clergy Abuse Task Force. The Task Force was created following the publication of a Pennsylvania grand jury report regarding sexual abuse committed by clergy, which included the disclosure of sexual abuse by clergy who had served in New Jersey.
The Attorney General charged the Task Force with investigating allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and efforts to conceal such abuse. The Task Force was empowered to subpoena documents and testimony, present information to a grand jury, and pursue indictments and a grand jury presentment as part of its mandate to address any wrongdoing uncovered.
The Diocese of Camden challenged the grand jury’s authority to issue any presentment on clergy sexual abuse. On May 25, 2023, the trial court issued its oral opinion, holding both that (1) it could lawfully consider the validity of a hypothetical presentment on sexual abuse by clergy and the response thereto, and (2) that the grand jury would lack authority to issue such a presentment. According to the court, the grand jury lacks “authority to return a presentment which focuses … on misconduct by Catholic priests” under Rule 3:6-9(a), which states that presentments “may refer to public affairs or conditions.”
The trial court further found that “private conduct” does not qualify, even where that conduct “is a matter of public concern.” It further held that “[t]he presentment promised here” would not “refer to public affairs [or] conditions” because “priests are not public officials and the Catholic Church is not a public entity.”
The Appellate Division affirmed “substantially for the reasons set forth by the trial court.”
Issues Before the NJ Supreme Court
The New Jersey Supreme Court granted certification on October 18, 2024. The justices agreed to consider the following question:
Does a State Grand Jury have the authority to return a presentment about sexual abuse by members of the clergy?
Oral arguments were held on April 28, 2025. The debate largely focused how a grand jury can be used and if it has the authority to investigate private entities like the diocese or only government officials or agencies. Michael L. Zuckerman, the state’s deputy solicitor general, argued that the lower courts short-circuited the legal process before it could even begin.
“My frontline argument to you is that it is highly premature, inconsistent with the rule, for the trial court to have short-circuited this process before it could even start,” Zuckerman said. “And so for that reason, this court should simply reverse and remand for the process to go forward, possibly clarifying along the way that presentments can sometimes talk about non-governmental actors too.”
Attorney Lloyd D. Levenson, representing the Camden diocese, argued that clergy abuse was “long-ago conduct by private individuals that impacted only a fragment of the population.”
“If this court expands the scope of a grand jury presentment to include private individuals and private entities, conducting investigations in secret under the sole influence of a prosecutor with no opportunity to present a defense, the grand jury’s authority will be unlimited,” he added. “Presentments were never intended to call attention to private conduct within private entities. We ask, respectfully, that this court affirm.”
Several justices questioned if it was premature to act before a grand jury has issued a presentment. “It’s really difficult to speculate as to what a presentment — if 12 grand jurors even vote on a presentment — will look like, and trying to determine how to assess something that has not yet come into existence,” Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis stated.
The New Jersey Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision within the coming months. Please check back for updates.