South Carolina’s Resident Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein’s house burned down on Oct. 4. This comes two days after Goodstein’s restraining order preventing the transfer of voter data was withdrawn.
In August, the Department of Justice requested sensitive voter-registration data from multiple states, including names, birthdates, home addresses and the last four digits of social security numbers. This push raised concerns about voter privacy in all states.
The DOJ’s request was a concern in South Carolina because on August 29th, the lawsuit Crook vs. South Carolina Election Commission was filed. Crook argued if this data is released it would violate her right to privacy under the South Carolina Constitution, and it would break state laws on how government agencies share sensitive data.This would put citizens’ personal information at risk.
Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein agreed with the concerns and issued a temporary restraining order on the election commission so no data could be transferred. She reasoned that if data was released the privacy harm would be irreversible.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Trump ally, came to the defense of the DOJ, as shortly after the election committee appealed to the South Carolina supreme court and on the 11th the ruling was overturned. Justices argued her temporary restraining order was procedurally defective.
On Saturday, Oct. 4, at 11:30 a.m. E.T., a fire began at Goodstein’s residence when she was away from home. There were individuals present at home including her son and husband. All the individuals were hospitalized with serious injuries. Later that Saturday afternoon, Fits News received a message from John Kittredge, and he said an “apparent explosion… resulted in a fire that destroyed the home.”
Referring to her first reaction, senior Quinska Thompson stated, “It’s hard to avoid being shocked at any form of violence, especially when it is presumed to be political. No matter what political stance is taken by an individual, the automatic reaction to hearing someone’s livelihood be destroyed should be sympathy and confusion.”
Many individuals are questioning the circumstances of this situation in particular, as Goodstein has been a target of the Trump administration and had hindered their advances in obtaining sensitive voter data. Izzy Gardon, the director of communications for Gavin Newsom, stated in an X post, “A few weeks ago, one of Trump’s top DOJ officials publicly targeted this judge… Today, the judge’s home is on fire.” This is in reference to a previous post from Harmeet Dhillon from the DOJ.
Authorities have found no evidence of arson at the Goodstein’s residence. However, the situation only reinforces citizens’ beliefs the Trump administration and his supporters target his opposition. “There is a growing trend in American culture and media of politically motivated violence, and it could be inferred that Judge Goodstein’s House catching on fire could possibly have been an act of arson,” said senior Ella Hauber.
The executive order declaring Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization was made shortly after the asassanation of Charlie Kirk. However, many individuals raised concerns on the practicality of this executive order as Antifa is an ideology against fascist governments. This alone invalidated Trump’s argument as someone cannot deem an ideology as a terrorist organization.
Through the various official actions taken by the Trump administration, the question can be posed whether we are questioning higher powers enough. Thompson stated, “In my opinion, higher power should always be questioned and it’s the natural instinct of human beings to do so. Now seemingly more than ever, every action is under scrutiny because of the technological advances that have made it possible for people to stay in tune with the government.”
There is not any evidence that points to this being an act of political violence, however the fact we have to question the circumstances of this situation is telling of the current state of politics, and action is needed by the People who he was elected to represent.
