BREAKING: OMG. The house of a Democratic judge goes up in FLAMES days after Trump and Miller attack judges as “traitors!” The Trump administration’s literally inflammatory rhetoric has seemingly led to a shocking tragedy after the home of a South Carolina judge burned to the ground in a suspicious fire this weekend in Edisto Beach, SC, leaving three of the judge’s family members hospitalized with severe injuries. This is likely not an isolated incident. It’s a warning shot and harbinger of even more draconian acts of intimidation and revenge from an administration hellbent on destroying the opponents to its march towards authoritarian control. South Carolina Circuit Court judge Diane Goodstein had been receiving death threats for weeks after she ruled to temporarily block the state’s election commission from handing over voter files to the Department of Justice. That decision had been condemned by the Trump-appointed Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, and was eventually reversed by the South Carolina state Supreme Court. In addition, the extremist Trump advisor Stephen Miller has been posting incendiary screeds accusing judges who rule against the administration of “legal insurrection” and labeling them as “traitors” in a disinformation campaign ripped straight from the playbook of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Trump himself has used the terms “radical left lunatic” and “troublemaker and agitator” to describe judges who have ruled against his unconstitutional executive orders. The fire, which was preceded by a loud explosion, is currently being investigated as potential arson by the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division. Judge Goodstein was not at home when the explosion and subsequent inferno destroyed her house, but her husband and son were. They were forced to escape the blaze by jumping out of a window and off a porch from an “elevated first floor,” resulting in broken limbs that required hospitalization. They then had to be evacuated from the home’s backyard by kayak, according to The New York Times. In recent months, federal judges issuing rulings against Trump administration actions have received threatening voicemails, anonymous pizza deliveries (a tactic meant to signal knowledge of a judge’s home address), and vitriolic harassment. One federal judge in Rhode Island, for example, reported more than 400 threatening messages after blocking Trump’s moves on federal aid. Legal scholars now warn that, unchecked, this kind of intimidation erodes the very foundations of democracy. Courts simply cannot operate under a cloud of fear of violence. “I’m hearing everywhere that judges are worried about their own safety. There are people who are inflamed by the incendiary comments of our president and members of Congress about judges. Public officials have legitimized attacks on judges with whom they disagree,” said Nancy Gertner, a former judge and current Harvard University professor of practice, told The Guardian. This attack on Judge Goodstein isn’t some random act of nature. It fits a pattern of political violence targeted at those who enforce checks on Trump’s ambitions. Those threats are now turning into real-world danger. And while the flames are being put out, the message is still smoldering: if you stand up to Trump, you may pay a high price. If democracy is to survive, we can’t pretend this doesn’t matter. We must demand a full, transparent investigation. We must insist upon protection for judges who rule against powerful interests. We must hold accountable those who stoke violence with incendiary language. Because when you target the courts, you target justice. And when justice falls, everything else crumbles with it.