Operation Rescue, who organized highly public protests outside Dr. Tiller’s clinic, is falling over themselves trying to get away from Scott P. Roeder. So is Phill Kline, who himself had been bearing down on Dr. Tiller since 2003. Yet any other day, they pee in a circle around their One True God, and still manage to sleep at night.

I’m looking for a guiding principle here. Not so much an authority to appeal to, lest the potential for abuse become overwhelming, but a workable way of talking people like this down. If that principle is equal justice for all, then he has his day in court for premeditated murder. If that principle is tolerating difference, or intellectual honesty, or conversation and investigation, then we figure out how to make these real in the face of seemingly intractable differences. If it’s the rule of law I want, then, well, you get the idea.