Stanley Carlton Van Ness (February 28, 1933 – September 26, 2007) was an American jurist who worked for a number of state agencies in New Jersey, US. Most notably, he led the

New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate The New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate was a department within the Executive branch of the government of New Jersey that acted as a voice on behalf of the people of the state. It was responsible to make government "more accountable and ...

as the first Public Advocate in New Jersey and the United States. He was the third African American to reach cabinet-level status in New Jersey. Van Ness was born in

Somerville, New Jersey Somerville is a borough and the county seat of Somerset County, New Jersey, United States.New Jer ...

. In the early 1950s, he graduated from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

, subsequently serving in the Air Force. Van Ness graduated

Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

in 1963, then becoming an Assistant

United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey The U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey is the chief federal law enforcement officer in New Jersey. On December 16, 2021, Philip R. Sellinger was sworn in as U.S. Attorney. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has juri ...

. A few years later, he became counsel to Governor Richard J. Hughes. In 1969, Hughes chose Van Ness to lead the

New Jersey Office of the Public Defender The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (OPD) is an agency that is a part of the government of the state of New Jersey, in the United States. The agency provides legal aid to "low income people charged with major crimes." The agency was firs ...

. When the

was established in 1974, Van Ness was placed as its chief, and the Public Defender office was incorporated into the Public Advocate office.

References

State cabinet secretaries of New Jersey African-American state cabinet secretaries 20th-century American lawyers 1933 births 2007 deaths People from Somerville, New Jersey Public defenders Rutgers University alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American lawyers {{NewJersey-stub