Like a world-class military, Egypt’s judges are highly professional and technocratic — ardent defenders of the law. That’s why, over the past year, thousands of them have taken to defying the Mubarak regime which has, in turn, sought to corrupt and strangle the institution of the judiciary. They were prevented from overseeing the counting of the results during last year’s parliamentary and presidential elections. A Mubarak tool was chosen to oversee the case of opposition leader Ayman Nour. Two prominent judges were stripped of their immunities and put up for disciplinary hearings after correctly alleging that last year’s elections were marred by fraud. The Justice Ministry has used salaries and reprimands as a tool to force compliance.

It is perhaps with a sense of dramatic irony that as all of this has happened, we also knew that it would not be long before a rebellion. These issues have all collided at once, creating the perfect storm of fury aimed directly in Mubarak’s direction. The sentencing of Ayman Nour and the judges’ disciplinary hearing has brought out two unlikely allies to protest acts together: the liberal group Kefaya and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. They took to the streets and, without hesitation, plainclothed policemen beat and arrested hundreds of people. Running street battles in the dark alleyways of Cairo are strengthening the determination these once-unlikely bedfellows, who are making common cause pitching for reform.

While the Muslim Brotherhod gains in power, something no doubt being used by the Mubarak regime to engineer fear in Western backers, it is the judiciary that may prove to be the power brokers of liberalization. Though currently succumbed to the oversight of Mubarak’s executive authoritary, most judges are pushing for judicial independence. Earlier this year, thousands of judges and their supporters protested against not being allowed to oversee the election results. Furthermore, members of the Judges’ Club, which has 8000 members, have said they will boycott the bench should the two judges on disciplinary hearings are convicted. If they are successful, such a gain in power would allow the judges to reinterpret and repeal laws that have been passed by the Mubarak regime that are authoritarian and in many cases unconstitutional. Things like bans on “unsanctioned demonstrations.”

As mentioned, the West is concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood. But if the judges are able to obtain strong independence before any point in which they may come to power, then this concern may be inflated. Besides, it isn’t just the Muslim Brotherhood that is fighting for reform. There are the small but liberal parties. There is also the 8000 strong force of respected and powerful judges. And most of all, there is an entire population that is disenchanted with Mubarak and just waiting for an alternative to present itself. This alliance of necessity is exactly what Egypt needs to break Mubarak’s hold on power. It is how authoritarian regimes all around the world, over and over, have been beaten.