Nattens tanke

Når regeringsledere brokker sig over domstolene, så siger det som regel noget om disses forhold til loven.

Berlusconi: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has labelled Italy's judiciary a "cancerous growth", hours after a bill was passed freezing one of his own trials. Mr Berlusconi is facing a corruption case in a Milan court, but the new law would postpone the hearing for a year.

Musharraf: ...11 Supreme Court judges who could have derailed his plans to prolong his eight-year rule remain under house arrest. They have been replaced by more pliant justices who rubber-stamped Musharraf's re-election as president. Dozens more High Court judges who refused to take a new oath of office have been sacked.

Bush Jr: [Bush] took sideswipes against the "activist judges" of Massachusetts who legalised same-sex marriage last autumn, and the "defiance" of city officials in San Francisco, who have presided over 3,000 such weddings this month.