AB 2235: The Judicial Home Security Act.

Existing law, the California Public Records Act, requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. Existing law authorizes a person who faces threats of violence or violence and harassment violence, harassment, or threats of violence from the public because of their work for a public entity to apply to the Secretary of State for the purposes of enabling state and local agencies to respond to requests for public records without disclosing a program participants residence address contained in any public record and otherwise provide for confidentiality of identity for that person, subject to specified conditions. Under existing law, any person who makes a false statement in an application is guilty of a misdemeanor.

This bill would establish the Judicial Home Security Act, which would require the Attorney General to establish a program for a current or former judicial officer officer, including a current or former superior court judge or district court judge, who is domiciled in California to apply to have a designated alternate mailing address substituted for any reference to the persons home address in records that are made public. to prevent disclosure of their home address by a state or local agency. In this regard, if the Attorney General approves a judicial officer to participate in the program, the bill would authorize the judicial officer to require, upon their request, that a state or local agency substitute a designated alternate address for their home address referenced in any records that are made public. The bill would establish the Judicial Home Security Program Fund in the General Fund and would authorize moneys in the fund to be made available for the administration of the program upon appropriation by the Legislature.

The bill would require the Attorney General to approve an application if it is filed in the manner and on the form prescribed by the Attorney General and contains all prescribed information, including, among other things, including documentation showing the individual is to commence employment or is currently or formerly employed as or will be a judicial officer, a sworn statement that officer and a sworn statement that the applicant fears for their safety or the safety of their family due to their employment as a judicial officer, and an alternate mailing address requested for substitution for any reference to the persons home address in public records. officer. The bill would require the application to be dated and signed under penalty of perjury. Under the bill, it would be a misdemeanor for a person to knowingly provide perjury, and would make knowingly providing false or incorrect information in the application, and the bill would require a notice to be printed in the application informing the applicant. application a misdemeanor. The bill would require the Attorney General to commence accepting applications under the program on April 1, 2027.

The bill would require the Attorney General to create, maintain, and update monthly a publicly available list that includes information for each current program participant, including their the name, county of residence, and designated alternate mailing address. address of each current program participant. The bill would also require the Attorney General to create, maintain, and update monthly a list that includes former participants who are no longer in the program, and make the list available to state and local agencies and third-party data brokers and aggregators. aggregators, as specified.

The bill would require, when disclosing or releasing records or information that would otherwise contain the home address of a program participant in any format or medium, a state or local agency to substitute the participants alternate mailing address for any reference to the participants home address. The bill would require, when disclosing or releasing records or information that would otherwise contain the situs of the home address of a program participant in any format or medium, County Assessor and Recorder offices a county assessor office and a county recorder office to substitute the program participants alternate mailing address for the situs address on real property deeds, real estate records, and any other records containing the home address of a program participant.

The bill would prohibit the disclosure of a participants home address by the Attorney General and state and local agencies agencies, except in specified circumstances. The bill would prohibit a person or organization from publicly posting or displaying the home address of a program participant, participant who has made a written demand of that person or organization, including on the internet, and would prohibit a third-party data broker or aggregator from selling, licensing, trading, purchasing, transferring, releasing, or otherwise sharing in any format or medium, the home address of a program participant, including on the internet.

The bill would authorize the Attorney General to adopt guidance to facilitate the administration of the act by state and local agencies. The bill would require the Attorney General to submit to the Legislature, General, beginning January 10, 2028, and no later than January 10 of each year, year thereafter, to submit to the Legislature a report that includes the total number of applications received for the program.

By imposing new duties on local agencies and agencies, expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, and creating a crime, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.