Donald Stephen Coburn (born April 18, 1939) is an American Democratic Party politician and jurist from New Jersey.
From 1966 to 1967, he served as a Law Clerk to New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Weintraub.
Coburn, Beck and Crincoli constituted the first Democratic majority on the governing body in township history.
Assemblyman Thomas Kean, also of Livingston, was giving up his Assembly seat after five terms to run for governor; he was replaced on the ticket by Essex County Republican chairman Frederic Remington.
[1] A New Jersey Law Journal review said that Coburn had a "tendency to favor prosecution" and cited his "unpredictability" and "tough demeanor."
In a 1989 Law Journal survey, lawyers gave him the lowest score statewide for his demeanor and sensitivity: 3.2 on a 1-to-10 scale.
Three year, later the New Jersey Supreme Court, in a 4–3 vote, upheld the law on the basis that it provided immunity.
[7] The New Jersey Law Journal noted that Coburn limited the reach of the entire controversy doctrine (a doctrine of New Jersey civil procedure that generally makes mandatory all crossclaims and counterclaims related to the same transaction or occurrence as an underlying action) three times: Long v. Lewis ("a state worker who failed to raise discrimination claim before Office of Administrative Law could raise it in Law Division"); Mocci v. Carr Engineering Associates ("party could sue own expert witness after trial"); and B.F. v. Div.
In 1997, Coburn was part of the Connolly v. Burger King appellate panel that "reversed a ruling that denied a sex-discrimination plaintff access to similar complaints by other employees, finding the discovery relevant to the employer's efforts to combat sexual harassment.
"[7] In State v. Allah, his panel in 2000 "affirmed a conviction of a drug defendant in a second trial after the first one ended in a mistrial.
In 1999, the high court voted unanimously to reverse Coburn's ruling in State v. Cromedy, where he found no error where a judge "refused to give a jury charge on cross-racial identification in a rape case.