The Supreme Court recently granted review of a case to decide a longstanding, unsettled OPRA issue: whether OPRA’s privacy provision protects against the disclosure of the home addresses of individuals who provide this information to the government when applying for a pet license. Bozzi v. Jersey City.

In Bozzi v Jersey City, the Appellate Division held, relying on its precedential opinion in Bozzi v. Roselle Park, that OPRA’s privacy exemption does not ever apply in this situation, because people have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their name and address information when they apply to the municipality for a dog license. As I noted in my post about this opinion, the court’s ruling doesn’t just affect OPRA requests for pet license records; the Appellate Division interpreted OPRA’s privacy provision to mean that public bodies may not deny the disclosure of names and home addresses that are in any government record.

Accordingly, this case requires the Supreme Court to determine the meaning and scope of OPRA’s privacy requirement, and as a result, the Court’s opinion will have a significant impact on a wide range of OPRA requests.