Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito, appointed in 2005 by President Bush, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, acted totally inappropriate at the State Of The Union Address by President Obama on Wednesday night.
When Obama criticized the recent Supreme Court decision on unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns, reversing the McCain-Feingold Act and numerous other campaign finance laws that in some cases have been part of the law for a century, Justice Alito nodded “no” in a persistent and continuous manner and mouthed the words “Not true”, knowing full well that he was on camera and would be noticed.
For a Supreme Court Justice to do this is actually worse than even Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelling “You lie!”, when the President spoke before Congress last fall on health care reform.
We have a right to expect better public behavior by a Supreme Court Justice than we saw on the part of Alito. Of course, there is an explanation for his behavior. Obama voted against Alito for his Court seat in 2005, and apparently Alito never recovered from that, as when the President elect visited the Supreme Court a few days before the inauguration last year, all of the sitting Supreme Court Justices were there to greet him, EXCEPT Alito. So it is obvious he holds grudges, not exactly professional conduct on Alito’s part.
Imagine that Sandra Day O’Connor had not retired when she did, due to her husband’s diagnosis of Alzheimers disease, from which he recently died. If she had stayed on the Court, this disgraceful Supreme Court decision on corporate spending on campaigns would have ended up 5-4 against the change, rather than 5-4 in favor.
How much a single vote and a single member of the Supreme Court matters! π
I think we are paying to much attention to Alito’s silent remarks. He did not stand up and yell at the president. Rather, he silently disagreed with the presidents opinion. Alito must have felt that the presidents interpretation of the case was incorrect. Sure, maybe a more conscientious justice would not have allowed the media to see him disagree with the president. However, our democratic climate allows dissent and Alito was expressing his right.
We have to be weary of being pulled into these political contests between Democrats and Republicans. Politics and government does not have to be a zero sum game. The media thrives on getting people fired up about issues that really do not matter. In reality, Alito’s actions were just another talking point for the media outlets. It has no substance except for the fact that it diverts political attention to issues that do not solve any national problems.
I have to agree with you, Jon,that the media does thrive on stirring up controversy. π Of course, Justice Alito has the right to his view, but he should have been more careful in his body language and gestures, knowing he would be noticed. But you are also correct in that political attention should not be diverted to issues that do not solve national problems. However, that is certainly, in reality, not going to change any time soon, if ever! π