On the Alito Silliness

Some bloggers who are more than a little prone to hyperbole are talking about what a terrible thing Justice Alito did last night by mouthing a reply to a negative statement made by the President about the Court. I am in complete disagreement, primarily because I’m kind of sick of the scrutiny given to the crowd at these events. After Joe Wilson’s unfortunate outburst last year, cameras seem to be trained on every member of the audience in hopes of catching another media moment. It’s unfair. The State of the Union is obviously a bully pulpit for the president and we grant him that once per year. But expecting the crowd to take abuse for an hour while remaining emotionless is just unfair.

Megan McArdle has what I think should be the final word on this:

I’m sorry, I’m having a really hard time getting worked up about Alito’s ”breach of protocol”. It’s totally true that justices usually sit there like a stone. On the other hand, president’s don’t usually call out said justices for being too wrapped up in that dumb first amendment–much less call them out with statements that seem to be unequivocally false.

Using the state of the union as an opportunity to call out supreme court justices, who you expect will have to sit there impassively while you rake them over the coals is, well, kind of a jerk move. And I’m pretty sure it’s not exactly traditional presidential protocol. It certainly doesn’t show “all due deference” to the separation of powers, especially when it’s followed by a pledge to pass more of the kinds of laws they’ve just ruled unconstitutional.