Cite as: 536 U. S. 765 (2002)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
ment as a judge."); see also The Federalist No. 79, p. 472 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) ("In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will." (emphasis deleted)).
Given this grave danger to litigants from judicial campaign promises, States are justified in barring expression of such commitments, for they typify the "situatio[n] . . . in which experience teaches that the probability of actual bias on the part of the judge . . . is too high to be constitutionally tolerable." Withrow v. Larkin, 421 U. S. 35, 47 (1975). By removing this source of "possible temptation" for a judge to rule on the basis of self-interest, Tumey, 273 U. S., at 532, the pledges or promises prohibition furthers the State's "compellin[g] interest in maintaining a judiciary fully capable of performing" its appointed task, Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U. S. 452, 472 (1991): "judging [each] particular controversy fairly on the basis of its own circumstances," United States v. Morgan, 313 U. S. 409, 421 (1941). See O'Neil, 35 Ind. L. Rev., at 723 ("What is at stake here is no less than the promise of fairness, impartiality, and ultimately of due process for those whose lives and fortunes depend upon judges being selected by means that are not fully subject to the vagaries of American politics.").
In addition to protecting litigants' due process rights, the parties in this case further agree, the pledges or promises clause advances another compelling state interest: preserving the public's confidence in the integrity and impartiality of its judiciary. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 16 (petitioners' statement that pledges or promises properly fosters "public perception of the impartiality of the judiciary"). See Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U. S. 559, 565 (1965) ("A State may . . . properly protect the judicial process from being misjudged in the minds of the public."); In re Murchison, 349 U. S., at 136 ("[T]o perform its high function in the best way[,] 'justice must satisfy the appearance of justice.' " (quoting Offutt v. United States, 348 U. S. 11, 14 (1954))). Because courts con-
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