Op-Ed: Plaintiff Giuliani v. President Giuliani

Rudy Presses Suit
The candidate, as mayor, was a perpetual plaintiff.

By Kate O'Beirne

Candidate Rudy Giuliani pledges to appoint strict-constructionist judges who won’t make policy from the bench, because “making laws is the responsibility of an elected legislature.” He cites Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito as model appointments. Plaintiff Giuliani had a wholly different view of the judge’s role. As mayor of New York City, he launched lawsuits that sought liberal rulings to punish gun manufacturers and to overturn legislation on immigration, welfare reform, and taxes. When elected legislatures made laws with which he disagreed, this Giuliani thought it was a judge’s responsibility to legislate from the bench.

In late September, Rudy Giuliani appeared at a National Rifle Association conference to assure the audience that he opposes any new restrictions on gun ownership and views the right to bear arms as “just as important a part of the Constitution as the right to free speech and the other rights.” On the same day, the nation’s biggest gun manufacturers filed an appeal to overturn a ruling that had allowed a suit brought against them by Mayor Giuliani to proceed.

That lawsuit was filed in 2000 against 26 gun manufacturers and distributors for their “intentional and reckless” practices allegedly leading to gun violence. Congressional Republicans saw it as an attempt to achieve in the courts what the anti-gun lobby couldn’t achieve through the legislative process. The gun-rights lobby fought back, and scored a victory when President Bush signed a law ordering the dismissal of lawsuits that attempted to hold gun manufacturers accountable for the actions of criminals. Candidate Giuliani now explains that the suit, which current New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is still pushing, “has taken several turns and several twists that I don’t agree with.” Apparently he still endorses the suit as originally conceived. (emphasis added)

The only Republican mayor to participate in lawsuits against the gun industry, Giuliani claims he was merely trying to use every available tool to reduce crime in his city — including a novel theory of culpability and an activist judge who agreed with it.

...Candidate Giuliani explains that he now favors gun rights... What he hasn’t explained is how his judicial philosophy has changed since his days as a litigious mayor.

...Conservatives can only hope that President Giuliani — if such is our fate — can be counted on to appoint judges who would throw Plaintiff Giuliani out of court.

Click here to read the entire op-ed at NationalReview.com.