James Sample has written this Slate commentary on yesterday’s cert. denial in the Supreme Court in the Avery v. State Farm case. A snippet: “The statistics illustrate that the public intuitively knows what constitutional theorists strive to prove—that judicial independence matters. Elected legislators are expected to serve interest-group constituencies. They are expected to build coalitions; to promise outcomes; and to be held accountable for those promises. The representative branches function best when officials are lobbied by contributors and non-contributors alike. But judges–including elected judges–are different. They function best when ‘lobbied’ not at all, or only within the adversarial process and on the basis of law. Judges are accountable for the fundamental American promise of fair trials before impartial arbiters. Therein lies the tragic consequence of money’s increasing influence in judicial elections. In the long term, we all suffer–including interest groups–when any decision reinforces suspicions that the biggest donor, and not the best case, wins.”