She was doubtless referring to the unseemly electioneering, complete with vicious advertising, that has started to characterize judicial races across the country in the wake of Minnesota v. White.

Justice O'Connor long has opposed the election of judges in the first place. (After all, she was appointed to the judiciary, so that must demonstrate the superiority of appointed judges.) But in Minnesota v. White, she seems to have got carried away by her animus toward an elected judiciary. If some states insist on electing their judges, she ruled, then they must allow judicial candidates to campaign on the issues as freely-and irresponsibly-as other politicians.

States that elect their judges, Justice O'Connor as well as said, deserve whatever happens to them-and to respect for their law.

It was not a very thoughtful opinion, which is what happens when judges get carried away by their passions, in this case a prejudice against an elected judiciary. By freeing judges of limits on their speech, Justice O'Connor invited the demagoguery that may be the greatest threat to the judicial independence she so cherishes. Hers was a very logical decision in Minnesota v. White-too logical. Like any extreme of reason separated from experience, it lost touch with reality.

Here in Arkansas, there's a perfect example of a judge who, by taking political stands on everything from the war in Iraq to the University of Arkansas' basketball program, seems to have set out to systematically undermine the public's faith in the impartiality of the judiciary. Rather than being above political passions, His Honor Wendell Griffen of this state's Court of Appeals has come to embody them. --OPTIONAL TRIM BEGINS-- By now this Great Pontificator has handed down extra-judicial opinions on military tribunals, the federal government's performance in Katrina's aftermath, the suitability of John Roberts' appointment as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, the state's minimum wage Š and, well, one loses count. Suffice it to note that Judge Griffen's political comments have inspired more than 10 investigations by the state's judicial discipline commission, plus at least one protracted court case. --OPTIONAL TRIM ENDS-- Every time he makes one of his provocative speeches, the judge waves Minnesota v. White around like a permission slip to demagogue the issues as much as he likes. But courts do reverse course. Just as Sandra Day O'Connor seems to have changed hers. And couple of new justices have joined the Supreme Court since her time on the bench. There is hope that reason, the kind buttressed by experience, will yet triumph. Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer prize-winning editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. His e-mail address is pgreenberg@arkansasonline.com. © 2006 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.