-By Mark Mattingly
Judge Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona). As a result of this, Judge Roll was murdered when a lone gunman opened fire. In total, six people were murdered and 15 others, including Congresswoman Giffords, were hit and injured by gunfire as well. I am against this kind of violence and would seek to avoid it at all costs. I also extend condolences to Judge Roll’s family as well as to the other families of the dead, and I wish a rapid and full recovery to the wounded in this attack.
There has been a constant news vigil on this matter, with the dominant theme being the recovery of Congresswoman Giffords, along with placing the blame for the shooting on Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, the TEA Party, and conservatives in general, none of whom were present or involved in the shooting. As I have posted previously, there has also been a concurrent attack on both the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the US Constitution as a result of this shooting as well.
Why was Judge Roll, who as a federal judge is supposed to be non-partisan, at the political event for Congresswoman Giffords? I don’t know the answer to that, but with all the extensive press coverage of this event, I would think that would have been investigated by the numerous media covering this story and that the findings would be out there for public consumption by now.
I do know that Judge Roll was nominated to the federal bench by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and that President George H.W. Bush made the appointment of Judge Roll to the US District Court for Arizona. Both Senator McCain and President Bush are Republicans, so one would assume that Judge Roll is more of a strict constructionist or conservative-leaning judge based on that (although McCain is a well-known RINO and Bush’s SCOTUS appointment of David Souter would tend to cloud that picture somewhat). We know as well that Judge Roll made a ruling that the Brady Law had unconstitutional provisions within it, indicating a pro-2nd Amendment stance, which would go along with a strict-constructionist profile. It is known also that Judge Roll ruled in favor of a group representing illegal Mexican immigrants who were detained by the owner of the Cross Rail Ranch when they were illegally crossing the US border on the ranch property (the rancher had for years had illegals trespassing while crossing his property from Mexico to the US, causing property damage and destruction in the process), and the rancher was ruled by Judge Roll to be liable to pay monetary damages to the illegals. I suppose that this ruling was not favored by the conservative side but it is still possible that this was a strict constructionist decision. In the Cross Rail Ranch case, Judge Roll received numerous death threats although no actual attempts were recorded.
Although Congresswoman Giffords is a Democrat, she was previously a Republican and was regarded as a conservative-leaning Democrat, so there could be a natural association there no matter where the judge stood personally on the political spectrum, although as stated above he was assumed to be publicly nonpartisan. (I know that appointed judges at every level are actually partisan in their rulings at times, but officially and publicly they are supposed to present as neutral.) Conservative or Liberal, though, I still wonder what a federal judge was doing at a public partisan political event.
One thing is for certain…President Obama will be appointing Judge Roll’s replacement, and the US Senate will be asked to vote on the confirmation. The consequences of this appointment will be felt for years as currently judges have no direct accountability to voters even though many judges have effectively created law from the bench.
What I wonder about is why the media has generally ignored this part of the story. I have been accused of being simple minded, but having said that, why would the media prefer to fabricate attacks on Sarah Palin and the US Constitution as a result of this shooting instead of investigating this point of the actual news story?
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Mark Mattingly resides with his wife and five of his six children in Pickerington, Ohio. His oldest son is currently in the US military. He is self-employed along with his wife in a small business that is under duress due to impending changes imposed by Obamacare, from which the business does not currently hold a waiver, which makes him part of a large subset of Americans. He has been an aspiring journalist since he was in high school during the 1970s, before the Internet and word processors were made available to the general public. After education in The School of Hard Knocks’ University Of Life, he has been blogging since 2009 under the pseudonym “Guy Average” and says that if your beliefs are worth dying for then your life is worth living. Mark is a Pro-Lifer to the core and is opposed to murder in every case, and would gladly flip the switch on Old Sparky for any murderer found guilty by the State. Served as campaign manager for a Republican candidate in the 2010 May Primary in Ohio’s 18th district. Visited Washington DC along with a few thousand friends in late 2009 and early 2010. He can be seen at his Average Guy blog.