Senator Steele has introduced SB 3 which gives additional powers and protections to judges with respect to the use of force. It would add judicial officers as a class of individuals entitled to additional protection from battery. That protection comes in the form of a more severe penalty where a judge is assaulted instead of an ordinary citizen. In this respect, judges would join law enforcement officers, probation officers, community corrections workers, members of the department of correction and the like.
It also limits the ability of local government to prohibit these judicial officers (technically state officials) from carrying firearms in public buildings. Judicial officers would have the same authority to carry firearms as law enforcement officers (except that, of course, those law enforcement officers are regulated by their superiors — judges would not, presumably, have that chain of command.) Additionally:
A judicial officer who possesses a firearm as described in section 1 of this chapter has the same civil and criminal immunities and defenses concerning possession and use of the firearm that a law enforcement officer has when the law enforcement officer:
(1) possesses and uses a firearm; and
(2) is engaged in the execution of the law enforcement officer’s official duties
Something interesting about the construction of that paragraph, and I don’t know whether it’s intentional. Judicial officers are entitled to the same immunities and defenses as law enforcement officers who possesses and uses a firearm while engaged in the law enforcement officer’s official duties. The judicial officer’s immunities do not appear to be conditioned on the judicial officer being engaged in his or her official duties. Rather, engaged in official duties or not, the judicial officer gets the same immunities as law enforcement that is engaged in his or her official duties.
No doubt that was written to put judges on equal footing with the numerous citizens who can carry a weapon just about anywhere they want, with or without any training. Maybe some judges fear for their lives, even in their courtrooms, and they need certain immunities and entitlements even while taking our their garbage. I just wonder when that would expire? Let’s say a guy decides not to be a judge anymore, and he retires. Does he qualify for the same immunities and entitlements a year after he leaves the bench, to discourage an unhappy former prisoner who may want to get even? And isn’t an attorney an “officer of the court”? What about them?
Doug, I thought this was written for probation officers, not judges.
I don’t think so. It references “judicial officers” who are defined as: