Committee backs bill to make federal judges' home addresses and phone numbers confidential in state records

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday recommended a due pass on House Bill 1499, which would expand North Dakota’s existing confidentiality protections for certain criminal-justice employees to include justices and judges of the United States courts.

Representative Lawrence Clamine (testifying as bill proponent) said the state’s Sunshine Law requires governmental records to be open unless otherwise provided by law, and that North Dakota law already makes telephone numbers and home addresses of many criminal-justice employees confidential. He said the bill would add U.S. district judges, magistrate judges and U.S. Supreme Court justices to the list.

Clamine included a letter from U.S. District Judge Daniel Treanor documenting a rise in threats against judges and cited a statistic he attributed to Judge Treanor that threats to judges have increased more than 400% in the past decade.

Annika Lockard, assistant attorney general in the general counsel division, testified in support for the attorney general. Lockard explained that although a federal law known as “Daniel’s Law” (enacted Dec. 23, 2022) provides protections for federal judges, that federal protection applies to federal records and federal branches; state records law remains ambiguous. The bill would remove ambiguity in state law by explicitly listing federal judges and related federal judicial officers among those whose phone numbers and home addresses are confidential under North Dakota Century Code section 44-04-18.3.

Senator Lueck moved a due-pass recommendation; the motion was seconded and carried. Roll-call responses recorded in committee included Senators Castaneda, Luke, Merrill, Paulson, Brownberger, Cory and Chair Larson voting aye. The motion carried.