Two years ago, in what should have been a quiet judicial retention election, Iowa voters threw out three State Supreme Court justices for taking seriously their duty to protect fundamental rights. The three had provoked right-wing wrath for joining a unanimous 2009 ruling overturning the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriage. Conservative forces succeeded in ousting them by tapping antigay sentiment and attacking “activist” judges. Those same forces — aided openly this time by the state’s Republican Party — are now calling for the removal of David Wiggins, another capable judge who joined in the marriage decision.

This is a battle over the future of a fair and independent judiciary. And the battle is taking a new turn. Two prominent Republican politicians, Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor, and Rick Santorum, the winner of January’s Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa, will be joining a four-day “No Wiggins” bus tour of 17 Iowa communities scheduled to kick off Monday in Des Moines.

Its organizers plainly hope that these two well-known politicians will encourage a big turnout by the party’s conservative base, which might also help Mitt Romney’s chances in the state and the Republicans’ effort to win control of the State Senate. The Republican mobilization in the anti-retention operation will require a highly visible and forceful campaign on Mr. Wiggins’s behalf.

Like his three defeated former colleagues, Mr. Wiggins has chosen not to raise money or run an active campaign. Politically, that may be unwise, but it is a principled stance. “Campaigns are political,” Mr. Wiggins explained in an opinion piece in The Des Moines Register this month. “They require candidates to count votes and appeal to donors. That system has created a big enough mess in Congress. It has no business in the courts. Judges should be beholden only to the constitution and the law.”