In a speech at Georgetown University last week, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned that some Republican leaders' efforts to reign in the judiciary, left unchecked, could lead the US into dictatorship.

Justice O'Connor, who was appointed to the High Court by Pres. Reagan, retired last year. She was an important swing vote on many high-profile cases, including her tie-breaking vote to halt the presidential vote recount in Florida, securing the White House for Pres. G.W. Bush.

According the NPR's Nina Totenberg, who appears to have been the only reporter present, O'Connor said:

"Attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms. I am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies."

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According to Totenberg, the threats O'Connor was referring to included efforts such as Justice Sunday, the rallies held by religious conservative activists and politicians to urge the appointing of judges who agree with their views. She also decried threatening statements by politicians such as former House leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who denounced a judicial decision to remove Terri Schiavo from life support by saying, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

O'Connor also criticized Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for suggesting that judges decisions might be the reason behind increasing violence against them and and their families.

Finally, O'Connor said,

"It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

BlogHer Daily Briefing has been concerned that we might be on just such a slide for some time. Since the beginning of February, she has been viewing current events according to criteria laid out by Dr. Lawrence Britt, a retired businessman who has written articles and fiction warning of the possibility of a dictatorship led by religious conservatives.

Daily Briefing's conclusions are too lengthy to summarize here, but the upshot is this: she still sees the US as a free society, but like Justice O'Connor, she sees cause for heightened vigilance and concern.