Among the missing in January’s State of the Union speech will be Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. It’s his way of saying he won’t be part of what has become an annual exercise in political theater: rhetorical flourishes from the president–and partisan, sometimes boorish, responses from Congress. Members of the Supreme Court, conspicuously stoic amid all the histrionics and orchestration, are the potted plants of the joint session.
Alito is right not to return. He will now join Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in missing the prime time show. The country’s ultimate jurists don’t need to be part of political choreography.
Alito is also right to, in effect, stay away in protest over President Obama’s unexpected rebuke of the Court last time over its 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which overturned provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act.
Ironically, Alito’s still on the wrong side of the decision, one that backed off reining in big-money, corporate influence in elections. But he’s right to take umbrage at the president’s break with protocol.