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Committee advances bill to shield federal judges’ home addresses, phone numbers from state public records
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee gave House Bill 1499 a favorable recommendation to extend state confidentiality protections for home addresses and telephone numbers to federal judges and magistrate judges. Attorney General staff described the change as aligning state law with federal protections enacted after high-profile threats.
The House Judiciary Committee voted to give House Bill 1499 a due-pass recommendation after a committee hearing where the Attorney General’s office requested the change. The measure would expand North Dakota’s confidentiality provisions so that telephone numbers and home addresses of federal judges and magistrate judges are redacted from state public records, unless the individual requests otherwise under the bill’s subsection allowing an annual opt-in for specific record types.
Annika Lockard, assistant attorney general in the general counsel division, told the committee the Attorney General requested the bill to eliminate ambiguity between state open-records law and a recent federal statute referred to in testimony as Daniels Law. Lockard said Daniels Law protects federal judges’ personal information held by federal agencies but does not cover state records. “This bill very simply expands confidentiality of telephone numbers and home addresses for the specific public employees listed … to include federal judges and justices,” Lockard said.
Why it matters: Testimony cited the federal Daniels Law — passed after the 2020 shooting that killed a federal judge’s family member — as creating protections at the federal level but leaving potential gaps at the state level. Committee members asked whether the bill would affect social media and other publicly available information; Lockard said the bill applies only to public records held by state custodians and would not redact information already published on the internet.
Committee action and vote: Representative David Schneider moved a due-pass recommendation, seconded by Representative Jared Vedder. The committee took a roll-call vote and approved the motion on a 10-4 tally with one member recorded as absent. The committee named Representative Vedder as the carrier for the bill.
Ending: The committee’s recommendation advances the bill to the next steps of the legislative process with a favorable committee report. The Attorney General’s office said the measure is intended to harmonize state practice with federal protections and to provide the same confidentiality for federal judicial officers that the state currently extends to many state court and justice-system employees.
