In recent months, the New Jersey Supreme Court has released just three opinions which were not unanimous, including one opinion issued Wednesday in a criminal case where Justice Michael Noriega broke from the majority, his first time since joining the high court, in a case involving a defendant’s constitutional right to challenge a search.

In August 2023, after more than a year of the court issuing exclusively unanimous opinions, the court broke its streak with a pair of dissents issued in two criminal cases, State v. Burney and State v. Allen. The court’s unanimous run ended just shy of 13 months when it released three opinions on the same day in August, two of which included dissents. Since then, only three more cases have seen a justice break with the majority.