Judicial Security Act makes it into final budget
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Governor Kathy Hochul, who negotiated to include the Judicial Security Act in the state’s budget. File photo by Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
By Jacob Kaye
A bill that aims to increase safety protections for judges and court staff has officially been included in the state’s tardy budget.
One of several budget bills to be introduced in the legislature late Wednesday evening included the Judicial Security Act, which would explicitly lay out the consequences of committing a number of crimes against judges, their staffers and family members.
The bill, which is carried by Assemblymember Charles Lavine and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, originally appeared as though it may not make it into the final fiscal document.
In January, Governor Kathy Hochul included the proposal in her executive budget proposal, but both the Assembly and Senate left it out of their respective budget responses – the Senate, in its response, said it would deal with the issue outside of budget negotiations.
But as budget negotiations dragged into their third week since the original deadline for its passage, the bill’s inclusion became more of a certainty.
Now, the bill is expected to be passed alongside the broader $237 billion budget before the week is out.
“In New York and across the nation, members of the judiciary face significant threats from violent extremists who are hell-bent on disrupting the independence of our judicial system,” Hochul said in a statement to the Eagle.
“I’m proud to have reached an agreement with the legislature to increase protections for members of the judiciary and their families, to ensure they can carry out their duties without fear of violence or harassment,” she added.
Lavine celebrated the bill’s passage as part of the budget in a statement to the Eagle.
“We are far too aware of the dangers facing our judiciary,” Lavine said. “New York has now taken a substantial step towards protecting our judges. I am very gratified.”
The bill enjoyed broad support among the Empire State’s judiciary and among its legal community at large.
A number of bar associations came out in support of the bill’s inclusion in the budget. Judges’ associations also pushed for the bill’s passage.
“I’m pretty happy that the Judicial Protection Act was included,” Queens Supreme Court Justice Carmen Velasquez, who serves as the president of the Queens County Judges Association, told the Eagle on Thursday. “I'm hoping that it will allow judges to be more at ease with some of the situations that have been happening.”
The Office of Court Administration did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday but previously endorsed the legislation.
“Our court leaders remain wholeheartedly supportive of efforts to enhance judicial security and fully support the governor’s proposal and applaud the governor’s and Legislature’s sustained attention to this important issue,” Al Baker, OCA’s spokesperson, told the Eagle in January.
The bill’s inclusion in the budget comes as attacks, both physical and verbal, against judges have more frequently made headlines.
In January, 30-year-old Deobra Redden jumped onto Judge Mary Kay Holthus in a Las Vegas courtroom as she prepared to sentence the man.
Holthus was injured in the attack by Redden, but not hospitalized.
The incident was captured on video and posted online, where it was viewed nearly 70 million times.
Though attacks as brazen as the one in Las Vegas are rare, they do happen. However, most aggression toward judges comes outside of the courtroom.
In October, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson was shot in his driveway by 49-year-old Pedro Manuel Argote, who had just appeared before Wilkinson earlier in the day. The judge had given full custody of Argote’s children during a divorce proceeding.
Wilkinson later died of his injuries.
In 2020, an angered attorney went to the home of a U.S. District Court judge in New Jersey and shot her husband and her son, who later died of the gunshot wounds.
The shooting prompted representatives from the state to put forth federal legislation to make it a crime to publish addresses, phone numbers and other personal information of federal judges and their families online, similar to the legislation included in the budget.
The Judicial Security Act also comes as former President Donald Trump has made a number of disparaging remarks against federal Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing a case related to hush money payments allegedly ordered by Trump to be paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels, with whom he had reportedly had an affair.
The Judicial Security Act marks the first time the consequences of committing a number of crimes against judges have been codified in New York.
Under the bill, committing aggravated assault against a judge would be a class B felony and aggravated harassment of a judge, which could occur online, by telephone or mail, would be considered a class E felony.
The bill would also restrict personal information of judges or their families from being posted publicly and would restrict people, businesses or other groups that are in possession of judges’ personal information from sharing it.
The publishing of judges’ information online sparked controversy in New York in 2021, when then-New York State Court Officers Association President Dennis Quirk published the addresses of two of then-Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s homes on social media. Quirk had posted the addresses in an effort to get his members to picket outside her homes in protest of the court’s vaccine mandate.
Court officials suspended Quirk from his position as a court officer as a result of the postings. He was additionally charged with misconduct by the Unified Court System.
The fight between Quirk and DiFiore eventually led to the chief judge’s ouster, which came in August 2022 amid a reported ethics investigation into DiFiore’s alleged interference with a separate ethics investigation into Quirk’s behavior.
