Earlier this month, Judge Chuck Weller, a family law judge in Reno, was shot and critically wounded in his office by a man who apparently was upset over a ruling the judge had issued in a divorce case.
A Texas television station recently interviewed judges in East Texas about just how dangerous their jobs are. These judges' opinions are very apt, because in February, 2005, a Tyler, Texas, man - embroiled in a bitter child support dispute - opened fire outside the Smith County Courthouse and killed his ex-wife, a bystander who tried to intervene, and wounded several others before police shot him dead. Here's what the station reported:
Smith County Judge Randall Rogers and Gregg County Judge Robin Sage have been on the bench for more than 15 years. They say violence towards family law judges is getting worse.
"In family court we do highly emotional things, as a judge I have to take someone's children away," says Judge Sage.
Both say since the Smith County Courthouse shootings, just 15 months ago ... There has been additional security measures to the courthouses.
"The security measure have gotten better but they've just got a long ways to go," says Judge Rogers.
Judges interpret the law and sometimes those interpretations anger people. As a result, judges are often the focus of attack - but mainly from political attack. Many conservative "reformers" accuse judges of political activism from the bench and in doing so have created a strong bias against judges among a sizable portion of the population.
It seems to me inevitable that more and more people might believe some of this hype to the point of thinking that a judge might act out of personal animus instead of judicial impartiality.