Privacy protections for judicial officers, granting rule-making authority, and providing a penalty. (FE)

The bill also provides that, upon receipt of a written request for privacy protections from a judicial officer, all persons, businesses, and associations must refrain from publicly posting or displaying on the Internet publicly available content that includes the personal information of the judicial officer or the judicial officer's immediate family. The prohibition does not apply to personal information that the judicial officer or an immediate family member of the judicial officer voluntarily publishes on the Internet after the bill goes into effect or personal information lawfully received from a state or federal government source, including from an employee or agent of the state or federal government.

After a person, business, or association has received a written request from a judicial officer, the person, business, or association must, within 72 hours of the request, remove the personal information from the Internet; ensure that the judicial officer's personal information is not made available on any website or subsidiary website controlled by that person, business, or association; and identify any other instances of the identified information that should also be removed. Under the bill, once a written request is received, no person, business, or association may transfer the judicial officer's personal information to any other person, business, or association through any medium, except for personal information that the judicial officer or an immediate family member of the judicial officer voluntarily publishes on the Internet after the bill goes into effect, or if a transfer is made at the request of the judicial officer or is necessary to effectuate a request to the person, business, or association from the judicial officer. The bill also expressly prohibits a data broker, as defined in the bill, from knowingly selling, licensing, trading, purchasing, or otherwise making available for consideration the personal information of a judicial officer or a judicial officer's immediate family.

Under the bill, a candidate for a judicial office may, instead of having his or her name and residential address listed on nomination papers, file a certification of residence with the Elections Commission before circulating nomination papers. A judicial officer circulating nomination papers on behalf of a candidate for a nonpartisan office, or signing nomination papers supporting a candidate for a nonpartisan office, may similarly file a certification of residence with the Elections Commission before circulating or signing nomination papers. The bill requires the commission, by rule, to verify the address provided in the certification of residence.

Under current law, generally, a candidate for a state or local elective office must file nomination papers with the commission or, for a local office, with the appropriate municipal clerk. The top of each nomination paper must list the candidate's full name, including any nickname or former surname, and his or her residential street address. Under current law, a person circulating nomination papers on behalf of a candidate for a judicial office must also provide a certification at the bottom of each nomination paper stating his or her residential street address.

Because this bill creates a new crime or revises a penalty for an existing crime, the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties may be requested to prepare a report.