The chain-smoking 71-year-old has long been a fierce advocate for fathers' rights in divorce and family court matters. She is an outspoken critic of the Massachusetts court system, which she says is rife with corruption. In 2002, she ran a quixotic campaign for governor, campaigning around the state in antique fire truck.

This month, Johnson was barred from practicing law any longer in Massachusetts for putting sensitive confidential information from two of her cases on her Web site and for conducting herself in an "insulting, vituperative" manner in court, among other charges. Johnson on her Web site says she never posted confidential material. The disbarment is nothing more than an effort to silence her criticism of the courts, she says.

Somehow, we don't think Johnson intends to accept an sentence of silence anytime soon.

While we don't fully agree with either her politics or her methods, Johnson is a character in a humdrum world sorely in need of more characters. She's the thorn in the side, the thumbtack on the chair. She can be offensive to those who have forgotten there is no constitutional right to pass through life unoffended. Johnson speaks her mind, and loudly.

Johnson has already gone on the attack. She told reporter Brad Haynes she was disbarred by a "kangaroo court."

"They'll disbar me, which is fine," she said. "I'll write my judicial murder mysteries. I'm going to kill off a judge in the prologue of every one."

Johnson vows she'll fight her case all the way to the Supreme Court. Now that will be a sight. Wait until the likes of Roberts, Souter and Scalia get a load of her.