US: More than 1,000 judges apply to have online info scrubbed
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More than 1,000 federal judges have sought the removal of their personal information from the internet under an initiative launched following the murder of one judge’s son.
The response to the online scrubbing programme was revealed in the US court system’s annual report.
The report also details “a dramatic rise in threats and inappropriate communications against federal judges and other court personnel” in recent years.
In 2021, those incidents numbered 4,511 – a more than four-fold increase from 926 in 2015, according to the report.
“Some cases have involved litigants angered by judges’ decisions in cases,” the report said. “And the home addresses of judges handling controversial cases have been circulated on social media.”
Last June, a man in California who was armed with a handgun, a knife and pepper spray was arrested outside of the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The man, Nicholas John Roske, had intended to murder the judge due to the expectation that the court would overturn Roe v Wade, according to federal authorities.
It did so two weeks later.
The information included for removal includes home addresses, social security numbers, bank account numbers, and the addresses of children’s schools and daycare centres.
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