A few weeks back, we opined on comments from liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who admitted that he was willing to ignore the plain wording of the Constitution to accomplish what he perceived as a greater good.

In a television interview, Justice Breyer said that his belief that he was protecting the integrity of our democracy led him to vote to uphold the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform measure -- secured by a narrow 5-4 majority -- even though parts of it run counter to the First Amendment.

Last week, however, a federal appeals court took a step toward giving Justice Breyer a chance to rethink his dangerous end-justifies-the-means approach to constitutional interpretation.

Since the 2002 McCain-Feingold decision, the high court has hinted that it might be willing to take another look at restrictions on so-called issue ads aired during campaign season. Last Thursday, a three-judge panel provided the justices with precisely such an opportunity.

In a 2-1 ruling, a federal appeals court held that interest groups may indeed mention candidates by name in commercials within 60 days of an election as long as they are trying to influence public policy rather than the election results.

The case involved a Wisconsin anti-abortion group that was sanctioned for running a handful of radio ads taking the Badger State's Democratic senators to task for being part of an effort to block votes on the president's judicial nominees.

Now, the distinction between special-interest spots that are "genuine issue ads" and those that urge voters to choose or reject one candidate or another should be irrelevant if enforcing the Bill of Rights were the primary objective. But the court's decision is at least a tiny move toward the dismantling of federal restrictions that seek to stifle precisely the kind of speech the First Amendment was written to protect.

The case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Good. It will be the most important First Amendment case for the justices since their misguided decision in McCain-Feingold.