WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (both R-Idaho) joined Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and eight of their Senate Republican colleagues to introduce the Public Servant Protection Act, legislation to protect all government employees and their families from having their home addresses listed publicly online.

“Intimidating Supreme Court justices is a federal crime, yet our justices are being terrorized in their own homes and they and their families subjected to threats of violence,” said Risch. “Permitting public servants to delist their home addresses from online websites in order to protect themselves and their families is common sense.”

“Public servants and their families should not be subjected to protests or acts of violence at their private homes,” said Crapo.  “The freedom of speech should not be used as a weapon to intimidate or threaten others, and public officials should have the right to remove their address from the public domain.”

“Judges and other government officials should not be subjected to angry protests and violent threats at home simply because they serve the public at work. Our bill will protect public servants and their families by allowing them to remove their home addresses from any public website,” said Cotton.

Additional cosponsors of the legislation include U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

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