NEWARK – Virtually all personal information about federal judges would be shielded from the public under federal legislation highlighted today by U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a one time federal prosecutor.

That’s the goal, but how this will actually work may not yet be clear.

The lawmakers were prompted by the fatal attack in July on the North Brunswick home of federal judge Esther Salas. The judge survived, but her son was killed and her husband injured. The suspected shooter, who had a history of involvement with anti-feminist groups, committed suicide shortly after the attack.

Menendez put it this way, “He could not accept the judgment of a wise Latina in power.”

The bill would empower the federal government to remove identifiable information about judges from public records and if necessary, “scrub the information from the Internet,” according to a statement,

The goal is to prevent someone from doing what the shooter apparently did in this case – find the home address of the judge from public records.

But here is where things are not nearly as clear cut as they seem.

As any reporter knows, there are a number of ways to find out somebody’s home address. For starters, there are property tax records, mortgage records and voter registration data.

For this bill to do what its proponents envision, a number of local government units would have to remove the relevant information. These records are on-line, but hard copies also exist.

Granted, that’s not impossible, but at the same time, the removal of what had been public information, generally speaking, is not a good thing.

An obvious reaction would be: If we are going to do this for federal judges, why not state judges? And why not elected officials as well?

Menendez noted that to use property tax records to locate an address, you need to know the town, (or at least the county) where the individual lives.

Individuals who become federal judges are not always anonymous figures. Many have previous public lives of one sort or another. After all, one needs political connections to get to the federal bench.

The bill promoted today is understandable.

It is a reaction to a horrific event. And there are personal connections involved.

Menendez recommended Salas’ appointment; Sherrill as a federal prosecutor appeared before her.

At the same time, one gets the feeling that whatever happens with this bill, keeping all personal info about federal judges under wraps is not going to be easy.