The federal Judicial Conference recently recommended a series of reforms to increase security for judges.  This comes in the wake of the tragic attack at the home of a federal jurist in New Jersey.

The measures approved by the Judicial Conference:

• Seek legislation to enhance the protection of judges’ personally identifiable information, particularly on the internet.
• Support the development of a resource, in coordination with the U.S. Marshals Service, to monitor the public availability of judges’ personally identifiable information, inform judges of security vulnerabilities created by this information, and where necessary, advise the appropriate law enforcement of an inappropriate communication.
• Support additional appropriations for the upgrade, installation, and continued sustainment of the Home Intrusion Detection Systems program to ensure that it is in line with current security capabilities and technologies.
• Support funding for the U.S. Marshals Service for additional deputy U.S. Marshals in accordance with the District Staffing Model and pursuant to the U.S. Marshals Service annual appropriations request.
• Support a direct appropriation to the Federal Protective Service (FPS) to fund the required upgrades for and cyclical maintenance of the security camera systems it manages at U.S. courthouses.

Security for our judges should be paramount to the bar, and is an essential aspect of a justice system.

FYI, the 26-member Judicial Conference is the policy-making body for the federal court system. By statute, the Chief Justice of the United States serves as presiding officer of the Judicial Conference and its members are the chief judges of the 13 courts of appeals, a district judge from each of the 12 geographic circuits, and the chief judge of the Court of International Trade.