Poking the Bear

In what was an otherwise predictable State of the Union address from President Obama, one episode sticks out.  The President chose to attack the Supreme Court directly, with seven Justices seated only feet away from him.

Regarding last week’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, he said,

With all due deference to separation of powers [spoken with unmistakable contempt], last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests–including foreign corporations–to spend without limit in our elections.  I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people.  (…)  I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.

The Justices sat serenely, with the exception of Samuel Alito, who shook his head and appeared to mutter “that’s not true.”

Apparently, this was a scripted moment that was planned in advance.  I’d think one of his gaggle of advisors would have warned him against such a thing during revisions.  This was an unnecessary distraction and a vulgar bit of pettiness in a speech that decried exactly such things.