Hawaii-2024-SB2686-Amended

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that across the country, elected state and local officials, judges, election officials, school board officials, and others in decision-making positions that directly impact the public or an individual and other high-profile government positions have experienced an alarming increase in acts of violence, or attempts to engage in acts of violence, at their personal residence or the residence of a family member. In the past three years, two government officials and the family member of another were killed at their home. Most recently, in October 2023, Maryland Judge Andrew Wilkinson was shot and killed in his driveway by a litigant in a case pending before him. Earlier in 2023, in February, New Jersey Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was shot and killed outside her home. In July 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas' son, Daniel Anderl, was shot and killed in their family home in New Jersey by an attorney who had appeared before the judge. In October 2022, Paul Pelosi, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's spouse, was brutally assaulted in the couple's home, resulting in hospitalization and surgery due to a skull fracture received during the altercation. In October 2020, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation thwarted a group that was planning to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and ultimately nine individuals were convicted or pled guilty in the prosecution that ensued.

The legislature also finds that a 2021 study titled "On the Frontlines of Today’s Cities: Trauma, Challenges and Solutions" by the National League of Cities found that eighty-one per cent of local public officials surveyed said they had experienced harassment, threats, or violence in recent years. In addition to having their safety and well-being threatened, the report found that harassment and violent behavior interrupted local officials' ability to do their jobs and led to the loss of institutional knowledge due to resignations. Other public servants, including local election officials, have also experienced increased threats and harassment. According to a Brennan Center for Justice April 2023 of over ten thousand local election officials across the country, thirty per cent reported being threatened, harassed, or abused. More than half reported that the threats were in person. Seventy-three per cent believed that threats against election officials have increased recently.

The legislature also finds that data gathered by the federal and state courts illustrates that the trend of threats and inappropriate communications against public officials is increasing. Federal judges and other court personnel were the targets of more than four thousand five hundred threats and other inappropriate communications in 2021, according to the United States Marshals Service. This represents an increase of eighty-one per cent from the number of threats in fiscal year 2016, just five years prior, and a two hundred thirty three per cent increase in threats since fiscal year 2008. At the state level, the number of threats and other inappropriate communications to Hawaiʻi judges have increased tenfold since 2012. A recent Marshals Service audit found that federal judges' safety is at greater risk when they are away from the courthouse. This statement is borne out by incidents involving attacks against both federal and state judges at their residences, which have resulted in the deaths of or serious injuries to judges and their family members. In multiple cases, the attacker or would-be attacker used the Internet to access judges' personal information. The legislature notes that Act 46, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022 (Act 46), which established a judicial security task force, was passed in recognition of the need for additional measures to ensure the safety of judges in Hawaiʻi. The task force recommended that legislation to protect personal information be enacted.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to create the offense of unlawful publication of personal information that prohibits disclosures of personal information by a person or organization that intends to cause harass, disparage, or harm a public servant. This Act is not intended to restrain a public servant from independently making public their own personal information.

SECTION 2. Chapter 711, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§711- Unlawful publication of personal information. (a) No person or organization shall knowingly disclose or post protected personal information including but not limited to the home address or telephone number of any public official with the intent to cause reputational harm, emotional injury, or bodily injury that is likely to occur, or threatening to cause bodily injury to that individual.

(b) A violation of this section is a misdemeanor; provided that a violation of this section that results in the actual reputational harm, emotional injury, or bodily injury of the public official or the public official's spouse or child, is a class C felony."

SECTION 3. Chapter 801G, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§801G- Publication and disclosure of public servants' personal information; restrictions. (a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (d), upon receipt of a written request from a covered public servant, a person or organization shall not disclose or make publicly available content that includes the protected personal information of the covered public servant and their family. After a person or organization has received a written request, the person or organization shall:

(1) Remove the protected personal information from the Internet within seventy-two hours;

(2) Ensure that the protected personal information is not made available on any website or subsidiary website controlled by that person or organization; and

(3) Not distribute, give, or transfer the protected personal information to any other person or organization through any medium.

(b) A written request pursuant to this section shall be valid if the covered public servant or a representative of the covered public servant's employer submits a request in writing directly to a person or organization; provided that the covered public servant has given written consent to the representative. A written request shall specify what protected personal information shall be maintained as private. A written request is valid until the covered public servant provides the person or organization with written permission to release the protected personal information, or until the covered public servant's death.

(c) If a person or organization violates this section, the covered public servant or family member whose protected personal information is made public as a result of the violation may bring an action seeking damages as well as injunctive or declaratory relief in any court of competent jurisdiction. If the court finds in the plaintiff's favor and or grants injunctive or declaratory relief, the person or organization responsible for the violation shall be required to pay the costs and reasonable attorney's fees of the covered public servant or their family.

(d) This section shall not apply to:

(1) Protected personal information that the covered public servant or family member voluntarily publishes on the Internet after the effective date of this chapter;

(2) Records pertaining to property presumed abandoned pursuant to chapter 523A, the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act;

(3) Information subject to disclosure pursuant to a court order;

(4) Filings made pursuant to chapter 490, the Uniform Commercial Code, and recorded judgments;

(5) Copies of recorded instruments affecting title to real property that contain protected personal information that are provided by the bureau of conveyances to a title insurance company that has requested to access the record in its ordinary course of business; and

(6) Records a government agency provides to any other government entity pursuant to this chapter; provided that this paragraph shall not provide an exemption for persons or organization to disclosure information.

(e) For purposes of this section:

"Covered public servant" means:

(1) The governor;

(2) The lieutenant governor;

(3) The state administrative director appointed pursuant to section 26-3;

(4) Any head of a state department established under section 26-4;

(5) Any member of the legislature;

(6) Any active, formerly active, or retired:

(A) Justice of the Hawaii supreme court;

(B) Judge of the Hawaii intermediate court of appeals;

(D) Judge of a Hawaii district court or district family court; or

(E) Per diem judge of a Hawaii district court or district family court;

(7) Any active, formerly active, or retired:

(A) Justice of the United States Supreme Court;

(B) Judge of the United States Court of Appeals;

(D) Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court,

who resides in the State, formerly resided in the State while serving as a federal judge, or owns real property in the State;

(8) The administrative director of the courts;

(9) The deputy administrative director of the courts;

(10) Any employee or volunteer of the office of elections; or

(11) Any person designated for good cause by the governor, chief justice, chairperson of the office of Hawaiian affairs, president of the senate, or speaker of the house of representatives in the designator's respective body.

"Disclose" means to sell, manufacture, give, provide, lend, trade, mail, deliver, transfer, post, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, advertise, or offer by any means including but not limited to electronic transmission and on any medium including but not limited to the Internet.

"Family" means spouses or reciprocal beneficiaries, former spouses or former reciprocal beneficiaries, persons who have a child in common, parents, children, persons related by consanguinity, persons jointly residing or formerly residing in the same dwelling unit, and persons who have or have had a dating relationship.

"Government agency" means any department, division, board, commission, public corporation, or other agency or instrumentality of the State or any county.

"Home" means a permanent residence and any secondary residences affirmatively identified by the covered public servant but does not include a work address or investment property.

"Organization" means an association or entity including a charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization; for-profit organization; or business entity, formed for a specific purpose.

"Protected personal information" includes a home address and any property ownership information; contact information including but not limited to a home telephone number, cellular phone number, and direct telephone number to a covered person's private office or chambers; personal email address; directions to the covered public servant's or a family members' home; photograph of a covered public servant's or a family members' home that legibly displays the address or otherwise identifies the location; photograph of a covered public servant's or family member's vehicle that legibly displays the vehicle license plate number; the names and locations of schools and day care facilities attended by the children of the covered public servant; identity of children of the covered public servant that are under the age of eighteen; voter registration information; the contents of any application for absentee voter's ballots; property tax records; and the name and address of the employer of any family member.

"Publicly available content" means any written, printed, or electronic document or record that provides information or that serves as a document or record maintained, controlled, or in the possession of a government agency that may be obtained by any person or entity, from the Internet, from the government agency upon request either free of charge or for a fee, or in response to a request pursuant to chapter 92F.

"Post or display" means to communicate to another or to otherwise make available to the general public."

SECTION 4. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the Act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.

SECTION 5. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.

SECTION 6. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on September 1, 2024.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2686
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII