Alito Notes Perilous Presidential Fake-Outs in State of the Union Speeches
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. is all too familiar with the perils of State of the Union speeches.
Justices, he says, are expected to sit “like the proverbial potted plant,” but to applaud patriotic lines such as, “Isn’t this the greatest country in the world?” The problem, he said in a speech to the Manhattan Institute last week, is when “presidents will fake you out,” according to stories by Newsmax and the Associated Press.
After the president invokes the country’s greatness, justices at the State of the Union speech will feel compelled to stand and applaud to avoid looking unpatriotic, Alito said. But then the president will explain the country is great “because we’re conducting a surge in Iraq or because we’re enacting health care reform.”
Alito concluded it may be better to stay away from the speeches as a few of his colleagues have done. “So I doubt that I will be there in January,” he said.
Last year Alito famously mouthed the words “not true” in response to President Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United ruling at his State of the Union speech. During Alito’s speech last week, the audience erupted in laughter when Alito deadpanned that the justices “who are more disciplined refrain from manifesting any emotion or opinion whatsoever,” Newsmax reports.
Alito also used his speech to warn that law schools are dominated by “judicial theorists” who oppose applying the Constitution and laws as they are written, the Newsmax story says.
