FILED
August 23, 2022
At: 9:43 A.M.
William T. Walsh
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY Clerk
IN RE: UPDATED COVID-19 PROTOCOLS :
REGARDING VACCINATION AND TESTING, :
MASKING, AND SOCIAL DISTANCING OF : STANDING ORDER 2022-02
VISITORS TO COURT FACILITIES AND :
CRIMINAL DEFENDANTS; Partial Recission of :
Standing Orders 2021-08 and 2022-01 :
WHEREAS, in March 2020, in response to the spread of COVID-19, a National
Emergency, and New Jersey State of Emergency and Public Health Emergency were initially
declared; and
WHEREAS, while the New Jersey Public Health Emergency was terminated in June
2021, on September 13, 2021, when the National Emergency and New Jersey State of
Emergency were still in effect, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
(“this Court”) entered Standing Order 2021-08, requiring that all visitors to Court facilities
(with few exceptions) provide proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result
as a condition of entry into Court facilities; and
WHEREAS, this Court did so in response to policies announced, during the prior month,
by the President of the United States (“President Biden”), the Governor of the State of New
Jersey (“Governor Murphy”) and the New Jersey State Judiciary, requiring that their respective
employees become fully vaccinated or submit to regular COVID-19 testing, and President
Biden’s subsequent mandate, removing the testing option and requiring that all Executive Branch
employees be fully vaccinated; and
WHEREAS, the virulent Omicron variant of COVID-19 was then discovered in
November 2021, and due to its high transmissibility, required additional precautionary measures,
causing Governor Murphy to continue the State of Emergency and to declare a new Public
Health Emergency, and to require certain health care and high-risk congregate settings to
maintain a policy requiring proof of booster, as well as full vaccination; and
WHEREAS, as a result of such precautionary measures having been taken, by early
March 2022, New Jersey showed considerably improved data on the rate of transmission and the
number of hospitalizations and daily cases, prompting Governor Murphy to terminate the Public
Health Emergency, but continue the State of Emergency; and
WHEREAS, on March 16, 2022, this Court entered Standing Order 2022-01, applying
the CDC’s recently announced tool, “COVID-19 Community Levels,” which assigns each
county into a “low,” “medium” or “high” category, based upon real-time COVID-19
transmissibility within each community, and Standing Order 2022-01 specified that, regardless
of vaccination status or individual risk, employees and visitors to Court facilities were only
required to wear masks indoors in public when the Community Level was “high” in the county
in which the Court facility was located; and
WHEREAS, however, Standing Order 2022-01 created a masking exception in
connection with prospective jurors, who were still required to wear masks in the courtroom,
during the jury selection process of all civil and criminal jury trials in this District, although
members of a sitting, fully vaccinated jury were not required to wear masks; and
WHEREAS, Standing Order 2022-01 also provided that social distancing was no longer
required, except that 3’ social distancing was to be maintained between jurors seated in this
Court’s jury boxes, whether the jurors were masked or not, during civil and criminal jury trials
conducted in this District; and
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WHEREAS, Standing Order 2022-01 further continued the requirement in Standing
Order 2021-08 that criminal defendants present a negative COVID-19 test result as a condition
of being transported from detention facilities to this District’s Court facilities; and
WHEREAS, since the entry of Standing Order 2022-01 in March 2022, New Jersey
has witnessed stable rates on key metrics, such as the number of hospitalized patients, and
patients in intensive care and on ventilators, in part due to widely available treatments that
reduce the likelihood of severe illness and death, such as antiviral medications and monoclonal
antibodies; and
WHEREAS, on August 11, 2022, the CDC issued updated “Guidance for Minimizing
the Impact of COVID-19 on Individual Persons, Communities, and Health Care Systems,”
observing that high levels of vaccine-induced and infection-induced immunity, as well as the
availability of effective treatments and prevention tools, have significantly reduced the risk of
severe illness, hospitalization and death; and
WHEREAS, the CDC now recommends masking in areas of high community levels,
and diagnostic testing for active infection only of symptomatic persons or those with known
or suspected exposure to someone with COVID-19, except that it suggests the use of screening
testing of asymptomatic persons with no known exposure, irrespective of vaccination status,
in high-risk congregate settings, such as correctional facilities; and
WHEREAS, the CDC has further relaxed its guidance, so as to recommend contact
tracing only in health care and certain high-risk congregate settings, and to remove its earlier
recommendation of quarantining exposed persons, while continuing its recommendation that
infected persons isolate for five days and then mask up for an additional five days; and
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WHEREAS, in light of this updated CDC guidance, on August 15, 2022, Governor
Murphy signed Executive Order No. 302, lifting the requirements, ordered in August to
October 2021, that school districts and childcare settings maintain a policy requiring their
unvaccinated workers to undergo routine testing, effective as of that date, and similarly lifting
that requirement of state contractors, effective as of September 1, 2022; and
WHEREAS, the Biden administration has also announced changes in policy, effective
August 22, 2022, under which agencies will cease COVID-19 testing aimed at unvaccinated
employees, and will stop asking employees, visitors and contractors if they are vaccinated,
prior to entering federal buildings; and
WHEREAS, this Court continues to take reasonable and prudent actions to protect
Court employees and the public from COVID-19, while preserving its core mission of serving
the public through the fair and impartial administration of justice;
NOW, THEREFORE, based upon all of the foregoing, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED,
effective immediately, that:
1. The requirement in Standing Order 2021-08 that visitors seeking entry into any
U.S. Courthouse (housing the U.S. District Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court) or any site of a
Probation or Pretrial Services Office, in the District of New Jersey (“Court facilities”), provide
proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result as a condition of entry is rescinded;
and
2. Consistent with current CDC guidance, the wearing of appropriate masks is required
indoors in public only in those Court facilities located in a county which has a current COVID-
19 community level of “high”; and
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3. The blanket requirement in Standing Order 2022-01 that prospective jurors be
masked during the jury selection process is rescinded, and those individuals will be required
to wear masks only as provided in Paragraph 2 above; and
4. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph 2 and 3 above, a presiding judicial
officer may, for any reason, direct that appropriate masks be worn or removed, by any or all
persons, during in-Court proceedings before that judge; and
5. Except as otherwise directed by a judicial officer, as provided in Paragraph 4 above,
the wearing of appropriate masks will be permitted by any person, in any Court facility, at any
time; and
6. Social distancing is no longer required in any Court facility, and the requirement
in Standing Order 2022-01 that jurors seated in this Court’s jury boxes maintain 3’ of social
distancing is rescinded; and
7. Consistent with current CDC guidance, suggesting the use of screening testing of
asymptomatic persons with no known exposure, irrespective of vaccination status, in high-risk
congregate settings, the requirement in Standing Order 2022-01 that criminal defendants present
a negative COVID-19 test result as a condition of being transported from detention facilities to
this District’s Court facilities remains in effect; and
8. The United States Attorney’s Office should notify the United States Marshals
Service of any in-person hearing for an in-custody defendant seven days prior to the hearing
to ensure that the detention center housing that defendant has sufficient time to administer the
test, and to avoid any unnecessary testing for canceled or moved hearings.
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9. The United States Marshal, his Deputies, and the Court Security Officers shall
enforce this Order; and
10. This Standing Order shall remain in effect until amended or vacated. This District’s
Court Security Committee will continue to monitor COVID-19 conditions, including the
COVID-19 community levels for the counties in this District, i.e., Camden, Essex and Mercer,
and will amend this Order as circumstances require.
August 23, 2022 ____________________
Hon. Freda L. Wolfson
U.S. Chief District Judge
District of New Jersey
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