California leftists are fortunate the gun-owning public they fear so much is in reality docile and law-abiding. Otherwise these outraged citizens might be marching on the courthouse after a few more judicial rulings that favor illegal aliens over citizens.
The latest comes to us courtesy of Judge Joseph C. Spero, who has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit brought against San Francisco by the family of Kate Steinle. You may recall Steinle was the citizen who was walking along the pier in San Francisco with her father when she was murdered by an illegal alien named Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez.
Lopez-Sanchez was a repeat felon that had been deported five times previously, yet when he was arrested shortly before killing Kate, city law enforcement authorities refused to turn him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement because the city’s "sanctuary law" forbade it.
Most rational citizens think any law passed by city officials that instructs city employees to conspire to obstruct enforcement of federal immigration law would open the city to liability claims when their defiance resulted in harm to citizens.
Well, you would be thinking wrong. Judge Spero airily dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit reasoning, "No law required the Sheriff's Department to share Lopez-Sanchez's release date with ICE, nor did any law forbid Mirkarimi establishing a policy against such cooperation." This overlooks the fact there already was a request to turn Lopez-Sanchez over to ICE after his release and a city that passes a law designed to prevent enforcement of federal law is obstructing justice.
Kate Steinle’s death was wrongful and Spero’s nonsensical ruling is just as wrongful.
But what really sticks in my craw is in the same week when the Steinle lawsuit was rejected by a judge who follows political correctness much more closely than the law, the court accepted a lawsuit from another illegal who claims the city didn’t follow it’s "sanctuary" law.
Pedro Figueroa Zarceno, a citizen of El Salvador, is angry that he was returned to his homeland by ICE agents. It seems he couldn’t be bothered to follow U.S. immigration law, but he was personally offended when someone in the U.S. didn’t bother to follow U.S. property law.
He walked into the San Francisco Police Department to report his car had been stolen. Reuters explains that when he returned to pick up his recovered car, he was arrested and sent home. Now he’s suing California because it didn’t follow the city ordinance it passed to obstruct federal law.
Of course a rational judicial system would accept the Steinle family case and laugh Zarceno’s out of court. But this is California where the rights and wishes of people who shouldn’t be here take priority over the rights and lives of citizens who should.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.