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Bill

S 2236

Enacts the wage payment integrity act

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Andrew Gounardes and 3 co-sponsors

Adds hardship ground: nursing mothers of infants 12 months or younger may be excused from jury service, easing conflicts with breastfeeding for jurors impaneled after enactment.

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Bill Summary · S 2236

Summary — S.2236 (P.L.2025, c.43)

Title (as enacted): An Act concerning exemption from jury service and amending N.J.S.2B:20-10

Purpose

To add an explicit statutory exemption from jury service for mothers who are nursing or expressing breast milk for an infant during the child’s first year of life, thereby reducing a practical hardship on breastfeeding parents and supporting public health goals.

Key provisions

  • Amends N.J.S.2B:20-10 (grounds for excuse from jury service).
  • Adds subsection (c)(3)(b): a prospective juror may be excused if the juror is the child’s mother and is nursing or expressing milk for a child who is one year of age or younger.
  • The new ground is incorporated within the statute’s “severe hardship” category (one of several enumerated bases for excuse).
  • All other existing statutory exemption categories remain unchanged (age 75+, recent jurors, certain financial/medical hardships, teachers under conditions, volunteer emergency responders, etc.).
  • Assignment Judges retain authority to evaluate excuses and deferrals under the statute.
  • Effective immediately; applies to jurors impaneled on or after the effective date.

Who is affected

  • Primary: mothers who are actively breastfeeding or expressing milk for infants aged 12 months or younger summoned for jury service in New Jersey.
  • Others affected: trial courts and jury administrators (who will process and adjudicate exemption requests); litigants and the jury selection process (potentially a modest change in available juror pools).

Procedural / timeline notes

  • Reported favorably by Senate and Assembly committees (Senate Judiciary Committee report: Feb. 8, 2024; Assembly Judiciary Committee report: May 20, 2024).
  • Passed both houses (Senate vote 38–0 on 3/18/2024; Assembly passed 78–0–0).
  • Approved and enacted as P.L.2025, c.43 on April 22, 2025.
  • The law took effect immediately and applies to jurors impaneled on or after that date.

Expected impact

  • Provides a clear legal basis to excuse nursing mothers from jury duty during the first year postpartum, reducing conflicts between jury service and breastfeeding needs.
  • Supports public health goals cited in legislative findings (health benefits of breastfeeding).
  • Likely small, localized effects on jury pool composition; courts will implement through existing excuse/deferral processes administered by Assignment Judges.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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