April 12, 2024 -- Since 2006, Gavel to Gavel has tracked state-by-state legislative activity with potential impact on state courts.
New and active legislation includes:
- Security
- Hawaii Senate approves its version of a bill that prohibits, upon written request from judges, any government agency, person, or organization from making certain personal information publicly available on the Internet; the bill now goes back to the House for approval or rejection of the Senate substitute;
- Louisiana House committee considers bill to allow judges to request a governmental entity or third party to remove a judge's personal information and provides for civil and criminal remedies/penalties;
- Mississippi effort to protect judges’ personal information dies in House; the bill had previously been approved by Senate on a 52-0 vote; and
- South Carolina Senate amends and expands the 2023 law regarding protection of judges' personal information held by state and local agencies.
- Selection
- Idaho law gives a $25,000 retirement bonus incentive for judges and justices who serve through the end of their term before retiring if they do so in such a way as to allow their positions to be filled by election, rather than appointment;
- Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee adds changes in judicial selection to judiciary appropriations bill; provision grants governor power to name a majority of the members of district court nominating commissions;
- Mississippi Senate approves version of a bill to make the state’s Justice Court elections nonpartisan; and
- Oklahoma constitutional amendment to give appellate judges lifetime appointments that had previously cleared the House rejected by Senate committee; Senate’s version would eliminate merit selection commission, require governor’s nominees be approved by the House and Senate, but still subject appellate judges to yes/no retention elections.
- Other
- California Assembly Judiciary Committee approves bill that expands existing judicial officer removal rules to apply to appellate justices whose decisions are reversed by the California Supreme Court if the case were remanded to the appellate court for additional action;
- Louisiana House approves bill that would require each judicial district to submit a monthly report to the Louisiana Supreme Court containing the number of criminal cases initiated and criminal cases adjudicated from the same month of the prior year;
- Louisiana Senate approves constitutional amendment that adds "malfeasance while in office" to the list of specified actions for which the Supreme Court may pursue disciplinary action against a sitting judge; the proposed amendment also provides that the Supreme Court may, pending an investigation by the judiciary commission, temporarily suspend judges for specific misconduct with or without salary; and
- Oklahoma Senate Committee approves the creation of an Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation within the Council on Judicial Complaints.