House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Set Ablaze
The beachfront home of Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein was set ablaze in Edisto Beach, S.C., on Oct. 4, 2025. Credit - St. Paul's Fire District/Facebook The home of South Carolina Circuit Court judge Diane Goodstein wasset on fireafter she had reportedly received death threats. State law enforcement is investigating the house fire on Edisto Beach which began at around 11:30 a.m. E.T. on Saturday, sources told local news outletFITSNews. Goodstein was reportedly not at home at the time of the fire, but at least three members of her family, including her husband, former Democratic state senator Arnold Goodstein, and their son, have been hospitalized with serious injuries. According to theSt. Paul's Fire District, which responded to the scene, the occupants had to be rescued via kayak. Law enforcement have not disclosed whether the fire is being investigated as an arson attack. "At this time, we do not know whether the fire was accidental or arson. Until that determination is made, [State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel] has alerted local law enforcement to provide extra patrols and security," South Caroline Chief Justice John Kittredge told FITSNews, adding that the fire appeared to have been caused by an "explosion." The 69-year-old judge had received death threats in the weeks leading up to the fire, multiple sources told FITSNews. Last month, Goodstein hadtemporarily blockedthe state's election commission from releasing its voter files to the Department of Justice, a decision that wasopenly criticizedby Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and laterreversedby the state Supreme Court. The DOJ had sought the information, including names, addresses, driver's license numbers, and social security numbers, of over three million registered voters as part of President Donald Trump's Marchexecutive orderrestricting non-citizens from registering to vote. (Non-citizens are already not allowed to vote in federal and state elections.) The Trump Administration has sought to drastically reshape the election system in the name of election integrity, by requesting and in some casessuingstates for voter registration data to compile acomprehensive centralized databasefrom more than 30 states, including suing several of them, and consideringpursuingcriminal investigations into state election officials. Critics have argued that the Administration's efforts are an attempt atdisenfranchisingvoters from marginalized communities andoversteppingstates' constitutional authority to control election procedures. If the fire at the judge's house turns out to be targeted, it may mark the latest incident of a startling rise in political violence in the U.S. And while the Trump Administration hasblamed the left's rhetoricfor inspiring violence such as theassassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an attack on a judge would come as the Administration has increasingly vilified the judiciary,blasting judgesthat rule against it as "U.S.A-hating" insurrectionists. In addition to Kirk's murder last month, themurderof Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Melissa Hortman and her husband in June, and anarson attackat Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence in April, a number of judges who have ruled against Trump have also received attacks and threats from his supporters. Chief Judge for the District of Rhode Island Jack McConnelltoldNPR in August that his court has received more than 400 threatening voicemails, including several credible death threats. McConnell had issued a ruling blocking Trump's freeze on federal aid earlier this year. Judges told NPR that they have received unsolicited anonymous pizza deliveries, a tactic known as "pizza doxxing" that implies that the sender knows the judges' addresses. A White House spokesperson told NPR that attacks on public officials have "no place in our society," noting the President's own experience with assassination attempts last year. "I'm hearing everywhere that judges are worried about their own safety. There are people who are inflamed by the incendiary comments of our president and members of Congress about judges. Public officials have legitimized attacks on judges with whom they disagree," Nancy Gertner, a former judge and current professor of practice at Harvard,toldthe Guardian in May. That month, Richard Durbin, top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, penned a letter to Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel requesting an investigation into "pizza doxxing" incidents against at least a dozen judges. "Threats against judges are threats against constitutional government. Everyone should be taking this seriously," New York Judge Richard Sullivan, a Trump first-term appointee,toldthe Associated Press in March. "This is a basic authoritarian instinct," Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University and coauthor ofHow Democracies Die, told the AP. "You cannot have a democracy where the elected government can do whatever it wants." Less than a year into his second presidential term, Trump has asserted an expansive view of his executive powers. As of October, Trump has issued over 300 orders, proclamations, and memoranda, many of which haveresulted in thorny and protracted legal battles. Between May 1 and June 23, federal district courts blocked Trump's actions with temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions around 94% of the time, according todata analyzed by Adam Bonica, an associate professor of political science at Stanford University, while the Supreme Court reversed those orders in close to 94% of its cases. Critics have said that the sheer amount of litigation, some of which has been brought or appealed by the Trump Administration, could overwhelm the judiciary. "What President Trump has done, perhaps more than other presidents, has been to not only bring the test cases and force the courts to deal with these issues, but to do it in a shock and awe strategy, which puts additional stress on the courts," Steven Richman, Chair of the IBA Bar Issues Commission, told podcastGlobal Insight, speaking in a personal capacity. "Test cases are one thing, but as in any litigation involving parties and lawyers on both sides, the facts and positions taken must satisfy rules of professional ethics in terms of not being frivolous." Others have said thebigger threat comesfrom Trump officials attacking judges that rule against the Administration. Trump and his allies have also sought to portray the judiciary and their decisions as politicized and "judicial overreach." Hours before the fire at Goodstein's house, Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen MilleraccusedU.S. District Judge Karin Immergut of "legal insurrection" for granting a restraining order that blocks Trump's deployment of the Oregon National Guard in Portland. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in apostfrom his office that Miller's accusation "for ruling on a case isn't just reckless. It's authoritarian propaganda, plain and simple." (Miller has previouslyaccusedDemocrats of using incendiary language to "mark people" for political violence.) Trump hascalledspecific judges who have pushed back on his executive orders "radical left lunatic" and "troublemaker and agitator." In May, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavittcalledthe panel of judges that ruled against Trump'ssweeping tariffs"activist judges." In a post that month, Millersaid, "We are living under a judicial tyranny." Millerpostedon X in March, "Under the precedents now being established by radical rogue judges, a district court in Hawaii could enjoin troop movements in Iraq. Judges have no authority to administer the executive branch. Or to nullify the results of a national election." "Another day, another judge unilaterally deciding policy for the whole country. This time to benefit foreign gang members," Republican Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,postedin March after a Washington judgetemporarily barredTrump from carrying out mass deportations. "If the Supreme Court or Congress doesn't fix, we're headed towards a constitutional crisis." In April, Attorney General Pam Bondicalledthe swathe of lawsuits filed against White House actions a "constitutional crisis." "President Trump's executive authority has been undermined since the first hours of his presidency by an endless barrage of injunctions designed to halt his agenda," shesaidin June. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson asserted congressional authority over U.S. courts, and appeared in March to threaten to disempower district courts if it came down to it. "We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court," Johnsonsaid. "We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act." But the Administration has also gone beyond verbally criticizing the courts. The Justice Department in Trump's second term has moved to prosecute several of his perceived enemies and judges that have pushed back on his political agenda. In April, Hannah Dugan, a Wisconsin judge, wasarrestedfor allegedly aiding an undocumented immigrant to leave a courthouse. In July, the DOJfileda misconduct complaint against James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., over alleged comments Boasberg made at a meeting of judges in March. In a social mediapost, Trump called for Boasberg, without naming him, to be impeached: "This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges' I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!" The Administration hasdisregardedcourt orders, including plowing ahead with deporting 238 Venezuelans to an El Salvador prison in March after Boasberg blocked the deportations. AWashington Postexaminationof 165 lawsuits in which judges ruled against the Trump Administration found "widespread noncompliance with America's legal system" by the Administration. The White House is accused of "defying or frustrating court oversight" in nearly 35% of those cases. Nonprofit media outlet Truthoutreportedin June that the Trump Administration also appeared to have defied a federal court order allowing transgender people to update gender markers on their passports. "Lawyers are a regulated profession," Dana Gold of the Government Accountability Project in Washington, D.C., told Global Insight. "The Department of Justice is inherently the bastion where the rules of professional conduct play a meta role because they are supposed to be serving justice." "If the Department of Justice is willing to bend, to basically break its own rules of professional conduct, it's a red line being crossed," she added. More than 150 ex-federal and state judges in Maysigneda letter to Bondi and Patel rebuking the Administration's attacks on the judiciary, as critics have said that the Trump Administration's rhetoric fuels broader threats against judges. "What we need is our political leaders from the top down to stop fanning these flames, to stop using irresponsible rhetoric, to stop referring to judges as corrupt and biased and monsters that hate America," Esther Salas, a federal judge in New Jersey whose son was killed in 2020 by an attorney pretending to be delivering pizza, told NPR. Contact usatletters@time.com.
House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Set Ablaze The beachfront home of Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein was s...
