ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland judges would be able to shield their personal information online to prevent hostile people from tracking them down, under a bill the state Senate passed Thursday in response to the fatal shooting of a judge in his driveway.
The Senate voted 43-1 for the Judge Andrew F. Wilkinson Judicial Security Act, named for the Maryland circuit court judge who was shot by a man just hours after Wilkinson ruled against him in a divorce case and awarded custody of his children to his wife in October.
“He was murdered for serving our state, for doing his job and for protecting the children in a domestic case,” said Sen. Paul Corderman, a Washington County Republican who sponsored the bill, adding that “this vicious attack requires immediate action.”
Corderman noted before the vote that his own father was a Maryland judge who survived an explosion from pipe bombs sent to his home in 1989.
The measure now goes to the House, where a similar bill is pending.
State lawmakers across the U.S. have stepped up efforts to shield personal information from being publicly disclosed about judges, police, elected officeholders and various public employees.
Maryland Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Fader testified at a bill hearing last week that judicial officers “are in real danger, as are their families, from the ease of access to their personally identifiable information from publicly available sources, especially over the internet.”
The bill identifies specific types of personally identifiable information that would be protected from disclosure on the internet by private and government entities, including home addresses and previously unpublished phone numbers, Fader said. It protects other sensitive information that could lead someone to a judge or family members, such as license plates, social security numbers or where their children go to school.
The measure exempts information that a judge has previously made public with consent, and information…
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