March 25, 2025
New Jersey’s Governor, Phil Murphy, has vetoed a bill concerning expunged information. According to the bill, it would have barred the Department of State Police from disclosing records with expungement orders.
Instead, the Governor has proposed codifying existing reform efforts. The vetoed bill is Assembly Bill No. 3881 (AB 3881). Despite Governor Murphy’s rejection, AB 3881 received bipartisan support and a unanimous passage by the state Senate. AB 3881 would have required the State Bureau of Identification (SBI) to remove any records subjected to an expungement order before completing background check reports.
This bill and Governor Murphy’s proposal addressed issues the New Jersey State Police with longstanding delays when carrying out expungement orders. The state police are responsible for disseminating criminal records in response to background checks. However, the expungement orders dramatically increased due to legislation from 2016 and 2019.
This legislation allowed individuals to clear certain minor infractions and drug offenses from their records. As a result, the dramatic increase in expungement orders left the state police struggling to carry out the influx of requests. Another consequence became the growing backlog of expungement orders, some of which waited at least four years before the system could process them.
Until the orders finish processing and the associated records receive an expungement, these records may still appear in a background check report. Due to this situation, the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (NJOPD) brought a class action lawsuit against the State Police Department. This lawsuit intended to require the state police to expedite the removal of these records. It recently reached a settlement agreement where the state police agreed to accelerate the clearing of backlogs, process new orders within 3-4 months, report on expungement processing times, and create a portal for individuals to track the status of their expungements.
However, AB 3881 would not expedite this process. Instead, it would require the SBI to review and remove any records subjected to an expungement order. This process would require the SBI to review every background check to ensure it does not include an unprocessed expungement order.
This additional step is one reason why Governor Murphy has vetoed AB 3881. The Governor argued how manually checking for expungement orders for over one million background checks would divert significant resources. Instead, these resources should go to processing expungements instead. As such, Governor Murphy suggested codifying some of the changes from the NJOPD’s lawsuit, such as the online portal and annual reports on expungement processing times.
This conditional veto means lawmakers can debate potential amendments and whether to implement the Governor’s plan. Regardless, employers should watch the rapid changes to expungements that may follow the NJOPD’s settlement and AB 3881.
Disclaimer:
Information provided here is for educational and informational purposes only and should not constitute as legal advice. We recommend you contact your own legal counsel for any questions regarding your specific practices and compliance with applicable laws.