A US court voided a 2021 West Virginia law banning judicial address leaks for lacking safety notices

A federal appeals court in the United States has struck down a West Virginia privacy law. The law banned the publication of home addresses and personal details of judges, police officers and public officials. The court ruled that the law breaks the First Amendment of the US Constitution. A three-judge panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, made the decision. It backed a lower district court ruling. That ruling found the state law placed an unconstitutional limit on the free flow of truthful, publicly available information. West Virginia lawmakers first passed the measure in 2021. They joined several other American states in passing laws known together as Daniel’s Law. The push across the country followed a tragedy in New Jersey in July 2020. Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of US District Judge Esther Salas, was shot dead at the family home. The attacker was an angry attorney who had found the judge’s home address online. The appeals court agreed that the state has a strong interest in protecting public servants and their families from physical harm and harassment. But it said West Virginia’s law went too far. It made it a crime, and set penalties, fo...