SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR WARNS OF RISK OF DICTATORSHIP IN ATTACKS ON JUDGES

JULIAN BORGER, GUARDIAN - Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed
judge who retired last month after 24 years on the Supreme Court, has
said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's
right wingers continue to attack the judiciary. In a strongly worded
speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and
the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican
leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal
bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against
judges.

Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court
justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would
strong-arm the judiciary." She pointed to autocracies in the developing
world and former Communist countries as lessons on where interference
with the judiciary might lead. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a
country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by
avoiding these beginnings.". . .

"Statutes and constitutions do not protect judicial independence -
people do," the retired supreme court justice said. She noted death
threats against judges were on the rise and added that the situation was
not helped by a senior senator's suggestion that there might be a
connection between the violence against judges and the decisions they
make.

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