AUGUSTA – A bill that would protect the identity of jurors even after a trial is over is scheduled for a hearing before the Judiciary Committee at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Members of the judiciary, including Leigh I. Saufley, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, support the bill. Advocates for public access to records, such as the Maine Press Association, oppose it.

The proposed law would reverse the way decisions are made about when and how the names of and information about jurors are made public.

Potential jurors fill out questionnaires that contain personal information such as name, address, age, occupation and previous experience on juries. Questionnaires also may contain more personal information about things that might affect jurors’ ability to remain impartial. Rape or child sexual abuse trials, for example, might ask potential jurors questions about their sexual histories.

Under law, that information is now available to the public upon request unless a judge determines that the “interest of justice” would not be served by the release of the information. That protection does not extend after a juror’s service ends.

The proposed law would keep confidential all information about jurors including their names unless a judge determines that “the interests of justice require the jurors’ names to be released.”

The bill makes an exception for attorneys who may use the information in questioning potential jurors.

Chief Justice Saufley said last week that, in a small way, the bill is part of her emphasis on courthouse safety. It also fits into her desire to see that justice is applied consistently in the rural hamlets and metropolitan centers of Maine.

“The statute as it is currently written has some ambiguities,” she said in phone interview last week. “It may not be applied the same way from place to place. And, the safety of jurors is certainly one of the components we’ll have to balance here.”

Maine Press Association Vice President Earl Brechlin told a Portland newspaper earlier this month that his group would be concerned about any law that restricts access to public information.

“Anything that restricts openness is a concern,” he told the Portland Press Herald. “It all creeps along little by little, until one day you realize what you’ve lost.”

While other states have had instances of witness tampering and harassment of jurors, Saufley said it has not been a problem in Maine yet. She added that what the bill proposes is similar to what is law in other states.

“In federal court, the information is not released unless the judge orders it,” she said. “We looked at other states and in some, the information is never releasable, but in others, generic, census-type information is released.”

Saufley emphasized that in considering what and how much information about jurors is made public, competing interests must be weighed.

“The public having access to the courts and understanding what goes on there makes for a more open system and fosters more trust in justice,” she said. “Also fundamental to that is the need for the system to be sensitive to privacy issues and juror safety. Litigants have an interest in having a trial by jurors who are fair and impartial. They don’t want verdicts informed more by fear of reprisals than by the evidence.”

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, introduced the bill at the request of the judiciary. He said early this month that he would not support it in its current form.

He would make a distinction between jurors now serving on juries and those who have completed their service. Mills also said jurors’ names should be made public but more personal information should not.

The Judiciary Committee also will hold hearings on two other bills Tuesday supported by the judiciary. One would make it illegal for anyone other than law enforcement officers to carry a weapon in the state’s courtrooms. Another would provide bond money to make the state’s courthouses compliant with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.