Obama Aide Defends Reproof of U.S. Court After Roberts Comment
March 10, 2010, 12:02 AM ESTBy Joe Sobczyk
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s spokesman defended the president’s reproach of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in his State of the Union address after Chief Justice John Roberts termed the scene at the speech “very troubling.”
Roberts, responding to a question from a student at the University of Alabama school of law yesterday, said the atmosphere at the address to a joint session of Congress has “degenerated into a political pep rally,” the Associated Press reported.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, responding to Roberts’ comment, said in a statement, “What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections, drowning out the voices of average Americans.”
That’s why Obama “spoke out to condemn the decision and is working with Congress on a legislative response,” Gibbs said.
In his Jan. 27 address, Obama criticized a 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court that lifted limits on corporate political spending. Obama said it would “open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections.”
In the audience as Obama spoke were six of the court’s nine justices. Only Justice Samuel Alito, who voted with court majority in the case, reacted. He shook his head and mouthed, “That’s not true.”
Many Democratic lawmakers applauded the president’s remark.
Roberts said yesterday that the president’s criticism of one branch of government amid cheers from another branch made him question why the justices attend the state-of-the-union address, AP reported. While saying he had “no problems” with criticism of the court, “there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum.”
--Editors: Jim Kirk, Don Frederick
To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Sobczyk in Washington at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk at jkirk12@bloomberg.net.
