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By MORGAN LEE
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico legislators are advancing a bill with new criminal penalties aimed at protecting state and local judges and their immediate families from threats and the malicious sharing of personal information such as home addresses.
House legislators endorsed the initiative on a 65-1 vote Friday night, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration. The proposal responds to concerns about the physical safety of judges and about efforts to sway or disrupt judicial proceedings.
“We can’t have a functional judiciary if our judges are scared,” said Democratic state Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil of Albuquerque, an attorney and co-sponsor of the bill.
The bill would make it a felony to threaten a judge or their immediate family with the intent to instill fear of physical harm, retaliate against a judicial decision or interrupt a judge’s official duties. Retaliation includes threats of bodily harm and property destruction.
The malicious sharing of personal information — also known as doxxing — would trigger misdemeanor sanctions.
On the federal level, security has been enhanced for U.S. courthouses and judges, which are protected by the U.S. Marshals Service, after a wave of protests battered courthouses in 2020. That same year, a deadly shooting at the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas left her son dead and husband wounded.
States each devise their own judicial security, with an array of approaches to protecting judges specifically from assault or under blanket protections for public officials. Legislators have until Jan. 17 at noon to send bills to Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.