It won’t come from Sandra Day O’Connor, as I noted the other day. But Justice O’Connor brought her campaign to shield judges from the slings and arrows of real accountability to Washington Thursday and Friday, in the form of a conference on “judicial independence” at Georgetown. Kathryn mentions, below, the eminently sensible remarks that Attorney General Gonzales made at that conference Friday. And bully for Newt Gingrich, who squared off Thursday on a panel discussion with Tom Daschle and Warren Rudman. Gingrich wondered aloud how the Supreme Court gets to “amend” the Constitution by five votes out of nine, and the rest of us are stuck with it unless we actually amend the Constitution. It’s worth a listen in NPR’s story on the conference, linked here.