Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act

This section would let this Act be called the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act.

This section would add a definition of eligible organization to the State Justice Institute Act of 1984. Under this definition, an eligible organization is a national nonprofit organization that meets all of the following: it provides technical assistance and training on judicial security and safety at the State and local levels and has expertise and national-level experience in that area; it has experience in courthouse design and courthouse security design standards; it understands State judicial operations and public access to judicial services; and it has experience working with a wide range of judges and court systems, including understanding the challenges facing trial courts, appellate courts, rural courts, and limited-jurisdiction courts at the State and local levels. The section also makes small wording changes to the end of two existing definitions in the same list (removing a trailing and from one and changing a period to a semicolon and and in the other) so the new definition can be added as the last item in the list; those changes do not alter the meaning of the existing definitions.

This section would add a new authorized activity to the list of things the State Justice Institute may support under the State Justice Institute Act of 1984. It would let the Institute provide financial and technical support to eligible organizations (as defined in section 2 of this Act) to establish, implement, and operate a State judicial threat and intelligence resource center. That center would: provide technical assistance and training on judicial security, including judicial officer safety education and training for judicial officers, courts, and local law enforcement, creating resources and guides on judicial security, and providing physical security assessments for courts, homes, and other facilities where judicial officers and staff conduct court-related business; proactively monitor threats to the safety of State and local judges and court staff; coordinate with Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies to mitigate threats to the safety of State and local judges and court staff; develop standardized incident reporting and threat evaluation practices for State and local courts, in coordination with State and local law enforcement and fusion centers; develop a national database for reporting, tracking, and sharing information about threats and incidents toward judicial officers and court staff at the local and State levels, shared with entities that work on judicial security, including State and local law enforcement and fusion centers; and coordinate research to identify, examine, and advance best practices on judicial security. The section also renumbers the list's existing final paragraph (previously paragraph 15) as paragraph 16, without changing its content, to make room for this new paragraph 15.

This section would require the State Justice Institute to submit an annual report to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on the Judiciary no later than 1 year after a State judicial threat intelligence and resource center is established under the new paragraph (15) added by section 3 of this Act. The report must cover the number of threats made against State and local judiciary members and court staff, broken down by type of threat and level of seriousness.