G.D. v. Kenny
New Jersey Supreme Court
15 A.3d 300 (2011)
G.D. (plaintiff) pleaded guilty to a drug offense in 1991 and later worked part-time for Stack, who in 2007 ran for state senate; before running, G.D. had obtained an expungement of his conviction and arrest records in 2006. A political consulting firm hired by the Democratic Organization (defendant), which opposed Stack, discovered G.D.'s prior conviction and his connection to Stack, and published flyers identifying G.D. as a convicted drug dealer, including his photo and, on one flyer, his name. G.D. sued for invasion of privacy; the trial court denied cross-motions for summary judgment, but the court of appeals reversed and granted the defendants summary judgment.
Whether a plaintiff asserting an invasion-of-privacy or improper-publication-of-private-facts claim must show a reasonable expectation of privacy in the matters published, even where the underlying conviction had since been expunged.