State Senator Raj Mukherji (D-32) has announced he will put up a bill to protect judges and prosecutors, as well as their immediate family members, from threats and intimidation.
“In a democracy, disagreement is fair game, but intimidation and violence are not. They must be confronted swiftly and without hesitation with the full weight of the law,” Mukherji said in a statement.
“Judges and prosecutors must be free to perform their public duties without looking over their shoulders or worrying about the safety of their families. At a time when the independence of the judiciary is under attack and violence is on the rise, we must draw a hard line to protect those who serve justice.”
The legislation makes it a second-degree crime, which carries a presumption of incarceration, to threaten, harass, or intimidate a judicial or prosecutorial official in connection with the performance of their official duties.
This includes “doxxing” the official and upgrades the offense to a first-degree crime if it occurs at or within 500 feet of the home of a judicial official, prosecutor, or an immediate family member or elsewhere if accompanied by a threat of violence or use of a weapon.
The bill will also presume knowledge if the actor sends items, messages, or makes contact at a protected residence under Daniel’s Law.
U.S. District Court Esther Salas, whose son Daniel was horrifically murdered and her husband shot and critically injured at the judge’s residence in 2020, recently revealed that judges across the country are alarmingly receiving threats.
Those include unsolicited pizza deliveries, food deliveries, and even funeral arrangements at their homes with the name of her murdered son.
Additionally, the bill will define judicial or prosecutorial officials as local, state, and federal judges; the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey; administrative law judges; workers’ compensation judges; and municipal, county, state, and federal prosecutors.
In August 2020, white supremacist blogger and former radio host Hal Turner doxxed the bill sponsor’s home address – where the lawmaker lived with his wife and then one-year-old child – and posted a map and directions, encouraging his followers to “stop over” at the residence in response to legislation the lawmaker had introduced and enacted.
Turner had previously been convicted in federal court. He served prison time for threatening and retaliating against three federal judges in Illinois.
He had previously boasted that his remarks may have inspired the murder of the mother and husband of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow in Illinois.
The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services is drafting the legislation and will be assigned a bill number upon introduction.