ANNAPOLIS, Md.–Just a few months after a Maryland judge was killed in front of his home, state lawmakers are considering a measure that would remove personal information from the internet to provide more safety for judges.
The Judge Andrew F. Wilkinson Judicial Security Act is named after the judge, who was shot and killed in his driveway in October 2023 by a man he’d ruled against in a custody dispute.
Sponsors hope the proposed change would provide more safety to judges and their families.
“The threats that happen to the members of the judiciary, they happen all the time,” said Del. Luke Clippinger, D-Baltimore City, House sponsor. “It’s a very challenging job to begin with, but a particularly challenging job when you add on the threats that they face and their families face.”
Wilkinson isn’t the only judge whose life was put in danger. All cross the country, state legislatures are looking to beef up protections for judges. In 2022, Congress passed the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, in honor of the son of New Jersey Federal judge Esther Salas. Salas was targeted by a lawyer who found her address and personal information online. Her son was gunned down in their family home. That law allows federal judges to remove personal information from federal government websites, according to a statement on the United States Courts website.
During the 2024 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly is trying to do something similar. The bill would protect the privacy of judges by removing or prohibiting personal information from being published on the internet or any form of social media. The bill passed in the Senate and now moves on to the House.
Watchdog and advocacy groups in other states that have considered similar legislation have raised concerns about the possibility of withholding too much information about elected and appointed officials, who ultimately answer to the public. In a committee hearing, Sen. Charles Sydnor III, D-Baltimore, expressed concerns that the effort could be too broad.
“While I understand there was a specific concern about people posting and immediately wanting to be able to act, that was just one circumstance, and I just thought it was too broad,” Sydnor said in an interview with Capital News Service.
After Wilkinson was killed, Jason DeLoach, the president of the Maryland State Bar Association, said he began working with others to put the bill together.
“When Judge Wilkinson was tragically murdered, I looked his wife in the eye at his service and I told her that the MSBA would be actively involved in making sure that we improve judicial security and doing everything we can to prevent this type of thing from happening again,” he said during an interview with CNS.
As an attorney, DeLoach said he thinks that it’s important to trust that a case will be resolved based on the facts and evidence of the case.
“We don’t want the judge to have to think about anything other than the facts and the evidence,” he said. “When judges are being threatened, or there’s a potential for violence, that may persuade them on how they’re going to rule.”
Shortly before he died, Wilkinson ruled against his shooter in a divorce case granting the man’s ex-wife custody of their children. Police suspect that was the motive for the shooting later that night.
Stephanie Wilkinson, the wife of Judge Wilkinson, said in her testimony before lawmakers that the gunman ambushed Wilkinson while he stepped outside to take a walk.
“I am devastated that I lost my husband, but my heart is beyond repair that my children have lost their father,” she said. “Please help make things right by supporting this bill. By doing so you will assure my children, and the children Drew saved that day in this domestic case, that he did not die in vain.”