{{Short description|American judge (born 1954)}} {{Use American English|date=March 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Lee Solomon |office = Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey |appointer = Chris Christie |term_start = June 19, 2014 |term_end = August 17, 2024 |predecessor = John E. Wallace Jr. |successor = John Jay Hoffman |state_assembly2 = New Jersey |district2 = 6th |alongside2 = John A. Rocco |term_start2 = February 21, 1992 |term_end2 = January 9, 1996 |predecessor2 = Thomas J. Shusted |successor2 = Louis Greenwald |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1954|8|17}} |birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = |party = Republican |spouse = Dianne Solomon |education = Muhlenberg College (BS)<br>Widener University (JD) }} '''Lee A. Solomon''' (born August 17, 1954) is a former justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. He was nominated by Governor Chris Christie to serve on May 21, 2014 and confirmed by the New Jersey Senate and sworn in on June 19, 2014.<ref name=Confirmed>{{cite news |last=Rizzo |first=Salvador |title=NJ Senate confirms Rabner, Solomon for state's highest court |newspaper=The Star-Ledger |date=June 19, 2014 |url=https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/06/nj_senate_confirms_rabner_solomon_for_states_highest_court.html |accessdate=2014-07-20}}</ref><ref name=SCSwearIn>{{cite news |url=https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/10/new_nj_supreme_court_justice_lee_solomon_praised_for_experience_at_swearing-in.html |title=New N.J. Supreme Court Justice Lee Solomon praised for experience at swearing-in |date=October 8, 2014 |accessdate=August 31, 2015 |author=Johnson, Brent |newspaper=NJ Advance Media for NJ.com}}</ref> He reached mandatory retirement age on August 17, 2024.
==Biography== Solomon was born in Philadelphia in 1954 and graduated from Central High School. He is a 1975 graduate of Muhlenberg College where he became a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and graduated in 1978 from Widener University School of Law. Before his Supreme Court tenure, he had been an elected Republican politician serving as councilman from the borough of Haddon Heights, a Camden County Freeholder, and a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from the 6th Legislative District from 1992 until 1996.<ref name=SCBio>{{cite web |url=https://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/supreme/solomon.html |title=Justice Lee A. Solomon |publisher=New Jersey Supreme Court |year=2015 |accessdate=August 31, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119145625/http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/supreme/solomon.html |archive-date=January 19, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1992, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress running against Rob Andrews in the 1st congressional district.<ref name=NYT1992>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/05/nyregion/1992-elections-region-us-house-races-shifting-field-battle-incumbents-win.html |title=THE 1992 ELECTIONS: THE REGION -- U.S. HOUSE RACES; Shifting Field of Battle, Incumbents Win Handily |date=November 5, 1992 |newspaper=The New York Times |author=King, Wayne |accessdate=August 31, 2015}}</ref> He has also served as Camden County prosecutor and as a Deputy U.S. Attorney for the New Jersey District during the time Christie was the U.S. Attorney for the district.<ref name=SCBio/>
In 2006, Solomon was appointed by Governor Richard Codey to be a judge in the Superior Court from Camden County, first in the family division, later the criminal division. He was president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) from February 23, 2010 until December 2011. At the end of his BPU term, he rejoined the Superior Court in the Civil Division and later an assignment judge.<ref name=SCSwearIn/> Solomon was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2014 by Christie as a part of a deal with Senate Democrats to fill two vacant seats on the court. He was confirmed by the Senate in a 36 to 2 vote.<ref name=Confirmed/> On April 26, 2021, Governor Phil Murphy nominated Solomon for tenure in 2021, and the Senate confirmed him for tenure on June 3, 2021 by a vote of 37-0.<ref>{{Cite web|title=New Jersey Legislature - Nominations|url=https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/SenateNominations/SenateNominations.asp|access-date=2021-04-15|website=www.njleg.state.nj.us}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Greenberg|first=Bruce|date=June 4, 2021|title=Justice Solomon Gets Tenure|url=http://appellatelaw-nj.com/justice-solomon-gets-tenure/|access-date=June 4, 2021|website=New Jersey Appellate Law}}</ref> Solomon retired on August 17, 2024.
In August 2020, Solomon wrote for the majority when it found that the constitutional right against self-incrimination did not prevent a police officer from being compelled to provide the passcodes to iPhones he was accused of using to provide tip-offs to a drug trafficker.<ref>{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note|title=Recent Case: Supreme Court of New Jersey Holds that Compelled Disclosure of Defendant’s iPhone Passcodes Does Not Violate the Self-Incrimination Clause|volume=134 |journal=Harv. L. Rev. |page=2267|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/134-Harv.-L.-Rev.-2267.pdf|year=2021}}.</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=State v. Andrews |vol=234|reporter=A.3d|opinion=1254|court=N.J.|date=2020|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16109368769647748997|accessdate=}}</ref>
Solomon and his wife Dianne live in Haddonfield, New Jersey. His wife has been a member of the BPU since June 2013 and served as president of the board in 2014.<ref name=DianneSolomonBPU>{{cite web |url=https://www.state.nj.us/bpu/about/commissioners/dsolomon.html |title=Commissioner Solomon |publisher=New Jersey Board of Public Utilities |accessdate=September 1, 2015}}</ref>
== See also == * List of Jewish American jurists * List of justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-nj-hs}} {{s-bef|before=Thomas J. Shusted}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the New Jersey General Assembly<br>from the 6th district|alongside=John A. Rocco|years=1992–1996}} {{s-aft|after=Louis Greenwald}} |- {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=John E. Wallace Jr.}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey}}|years=2014–2024}} {{s-aft|after=John Jay Hoffman}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solomon, Lee A.}} Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:21st-century American judges Category:21st-century American lawyers Category:County commissioners in New Jersey Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey Category:Muhlenberg College alumni Category:New Jersey city council members Category:Lawyers from Camden County, New Jersey Category:People from Haddon Heights, New Jersey Category:People from Haddonfield, New Jersey Category:Politicians from Camden County, New Jersey Category:Politicians from Philadelphia Category:Republican Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly Category:Widener University alumni Category:20th-century members of the New Jersey Legislature