New Jersey – State Attorneys General Blog

In a February 26, 2026, notice, the Supreme Court of New Jersey announced sweeping amendments to the court rules governing briefing before the court. The new framework provides for merits briefing in all appeals taken on or after February 10, 2026. These changes represent the most significant overhaul of the court’s briefing procedures in years and carry important implications for appellate practitioners, amicus participants and anyone following the court’s docket.

Read the full Alert on the Duane Morris LLP website.

February 10, 2026February 10, 2026 by Jim Hearon

New Leadership in New Jersey: Acting Attorney General Davenport Announces Her Team

By James Hearon, Paul Josephson and Eric Boden

With the inauguration of New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill on January 20, 2026, her nominee to serve as Attorney General, Jennifer Davenport, assumed the office of Acting Attorney General of New Jersey. New Jersey is one of only seven states with an appointed AG. New Jersey’s AG has wide-ranging criminal, civil, regulatory, and law enforcement powers.

As New Jersey’s chief law enforcement officer, the Attorney General oversees over 42,000 state and local law enforcement officers and the 8,000 employees of the Department of Law and Public Safety. The Department’s responsibilities touch upon nearly every aspect of life in New Jersey. Its sweeping responsibilities include investigating and prosecuting crimes, representing state interests in court, and enforcing strong consumer protection and civil rights statutes.

Davenport’s confirmation has proceeded smoothly so far; she cleared Senate committee on February 2, 2026 and Senate confirmation is expected shortly.

Davenport has announced an impressive leadership team poised to carry out her many duties.

She named Katherine Calle to serve as First Assistant Attorney General. A former federal prosecutor and Harvard Law School graduate, Ms. Calle previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, where she held senior leadership roles, including Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, and supervised the Camden and Trenton Branch Offices.

AG Davenport named Eliza Lehner to serve as her Chief Counsel. Ms. Lehner clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan before entering private practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

Ms. Lehner will replace Sundeep Iyer, who will transition from Chief Counsel under the outgoing administration to AG Davenport’s Executive Assistant Attorney General.

Davenport also appointed Martha Nye and Nicholas Kormann as Deputy First Assistant Attorneys General. Ms. Nye spent more than seven years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, most recently in the role of Attorney-in-Charge of the Trenton Branch Office, and previously as an Assistant Prosecutor at the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Mr. Kormann’s background includes private practice at Day Pitney, followed by over a decade in the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender in Union County, first as an Assistant Deputy Public Defender and then as First Assistant Public Defender. He also served as Director of Investigations of Fatal Police Encounters with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.

AG Davenport named James Haggerty her Chief of Staff. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Haggerty served as the New Jersey Attorney General’s Deputy Executive Director of the Office of Policing Strategy and Innovation, and as Chief of Staff to the Officer in Charge of the Paterson Police Department.

Davenport has retained highly regarded Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum in that role. Mr. Feigenbaum spearheaded many of New Jersey’s legal battles against the Trump Administration and received high marks and national acclaim for his U.S. Supreme Court argument defending birthright citizenship on behalf of several states.

These leadership appointments come at a pivotal moment, as AG Davenport has already initiated several high-profile legal actions. On February 3, 2026, 2026, AG Davenport joined a multistate antitrust lawsuit against global pharmaceutical companies, Novartis and Sandoz, alleging price-fixing of generic prescription drugs. The following day, her office joined the New York Attorney General in suing the federal government over the suspension of funding for the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project.

Looking ahead, additional legal clashes with the Trump Administration—particularly over ICE operations in New Jersey—appear likely. Governor Sherrill has also been very critical of ICE’s current operations and plans to create a portal where people can upload videos of ICE operations in the state. During her confirmation hearings, Davenport testified that she would prosecute any ICE agents who violate state laws.

The Acting Attorney General has announced her priorities include protecting communities from gun violence; combating human trafficking; protecting the physical and mental health of children, including from threats online; promoting a robust affordability agenda; and protecting New Jersey residents from attacks on their pocketbooks and their rights coming out of Washington, DC.

The Duane Morris State Attorneys General group has deep experience with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and Acting AG Davenport’s team. We will periodically post on important developments and initiatives as they arise.

January 29, 2025November 10, 2025 by Christopher H. Casey

State Attorneys General File Suit Challenging President Trump’s Freeze on Federal Grants and Loans; D.C. District Court Judge Temporarily Blocks Freeze

By Christopher H. Casey, Daniel R. Walworth and Sara Smith

On January 28, 2025, attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island seeking a temporary restraining order against the Trump Administration’s proposed spending freeze on federal grants and loans. The state attorneys general include New York, California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. The complaint alleges that the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposed pause on federal spending violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it is contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious, the Separation of Powers doctrine because it usurps the legislative function, and the Spending, Presentment, Appropriations, and Take Care Clauses of the United States Constitution.

Also on January 28, 2025, several nonprofit organizations, led by the National Council of Nonprofits, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a temporary restraining order “to maintain the status quo until the Court has an opportunity to more fully consider the illegality of OMB’s actions.” The plaintiffs allege that the OMB’s proposed spending freeze violates the Administrative Procedure, is contrary to the First Amendment, and exceeds OMB’s statutory authority. Judge Loren AliKhan—just one day after OMB issued the temporary pause, and shortly before it was to take effect—temporarily blocked the proposed pause, preventing the Trump Administration from implementing the spending freeze. Judge AliKhan’s temporary order will remain in effect until February 3, 2025, at 5:00 pm.

September 25, 2024September 25, 2024 by Karen Lehmann Alexander

Multistate Coalition of AGs Supports FDA’s Denial of Marketing Authorization for Flavored Vape Products

On September 3, 2024, a multistate coalition of 20 attorneys general filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to deny companies the ability to market and sell certain flavored e-cigarette products across state lines.

The amicus brief emphasized what the attorneys general described as the “serious health risks” of flavored e-cigarettes (particularly for youth), and argued that the FDA’s statutory authority over the introduction of new tobacco products into interstate commerce is a crucial complement to state and local regulation of flavored e-cigarettes. The attorneys general explained that while states have adopted a variety of measures to restrict sales of flavored e-cigarettes, these products continue to flow through interstate commerce, necessitating continued FDA oversight.

The case is Food and Drug Administration v. Wages and White Lion Investments, LLC, dba Triton Distribution, et al., and arises from a lawsuit filed by companies challenging the FDA’s denial of their applications to market and sell flavored e-cigarette products across state lines. In January 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the applicants’ challenge. The attorneys general encourage the Supreme Court to reverse that decision.

The amicus brief was filed by the attorneys general for Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. A copy of the brief may be found here.