His evident bias against firearms manufacturers exposed on the editorial page of the prestigious Wall Street Journal, and having refused to recuse himself from yet another anti-gun case, federal Judge Jack Weinstein should be impeached, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) said today.
SAF founder Alan Gottlieb recalled that Judge Weinstein presided over Hamilton v Accu-Tek, a case in which Reason magazine accused the jurist of having “bullied the jurors into a verdict they would not have arrived at on their own.” That case was nullified by an appeals court that issued a scolding opinion about the unfairness of Weinstein’s initial ruling.
“Judge Weinstein’s lack of judicial objectivity, at least on the firearms issue,” Gottlieb said, “combined with his adamant reluctance to recuse himself from hearing yet another anti-gun lawsuit, can only lead to the conclusion that he has lost sight of the appearance of fairness doctrine, a cornerstone of the American concept of a fair trial. The Wall Street Journal noted that he’s heard at least 11 gun litigation cases, and they suggested that such cases are steered to his courtroom because-to quote the newspaper-lawyers for the plaintiffs know they ‘might not succeed in any other courtroom in America.’ That’s atrocious.
“Judge Weinstein heard the NAACP case against gun makers,” Gottlieb recalled, “in which he placed the jury in an advisory role. He was forced to follow the jury’s advice by dismissing the case, yet he issued an opinion with pages of dicta comments, declaring as ‘fact’ many of his personal anti-gun prejudicial beliefs, and essentially providing a legal play book for other plaintiffs to pursue frivolous lawsuits against the firearms industry.
“It is just such a lawsuit, City of New York v. Beretta, which is now before Judge Weinstein,” Gottlieb stressed. “No judge should be allowed to preside over a trial for which he essentially provided one side with a strategy for their case. It would not be enough for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to order the judge’s recusal, because his own history suggests that he would simply come back to preside over another gun case, like a tumor that cannot be treated with aspirin. It has to be surgically removed.
“When a judge loses his impartiality, much less his perspective,” Gottlieb concluded, “it is time for him to step down. If he will not recuse himself from a volatile case in which it is clear he has a pre-determined bias, then he should be asked to leave the bench in the interest of justice. If he will not do that, there remains but one course: Judge Weinstein must be impeached.”