Columnist: Alito’s headshake sensationalized by incensed pundits

Twitter
Facebook

 Email This Post
Reddit
Digg

Tell us what you think!
Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.

President Obama used the State of the Union address Wednesday to outline his takes on health care, job creation, foreign policy and everything in between. Many held his speech to be a success — after all, he was interrupted by applause 86 times according to The Hill.

One such occasion was when, in the middle of the address, the president chastised the Supreme Court for its recent 5-4 decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

“The Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign companies, to spend without limit in our elections. Well, I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities,” Obama said.

The ruling said corporate funding of political broadcasts in elections for office cannot be limited, because doing so would be against the freedom of speech clause in the First Amendment.

One of the major stories coming out of the speech, oddly enough, was that Justice Samuel Alito, seated in the front of the House Chamber with five of his fellow justices, shook his head at Obama’s criticism. “Not true,” he appeared to mouth. Alito, a George W. Bush-appointed conservative, voted with the winning side.

Rachel Maddow, host of a self-titled news show on MSNBC, called Alito’s actions “pure political theater” — a “quasi-reprise of Congressman Joe Wilson’s ‘You Lie’ moment,” referring to the incident where the South Carolina Republican shouted at Obama during a September speech on health care. She said that Alito was “heckling.”

Madow said these things for one of two reasons: She either is spinning Alito’s reaction, or she doesn’t know what the word “heckling” means.

I don’t believe the latter suggestion. Maddow holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University in California. After that, she received a Rhodes Scholarship and earned her doctorate in politics from Oxford University in England. This means she is a spin artist.

Alito hardly qualifies as a heckler. If you watch the video of the supposed theatrics, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, sitting directly to the left of Alito, doesn’t seem to even acknowledge him.

Still, Alito caused John Farrell, a blogger for the online version of the U.S. News and World Report, to go into a tizzy.

“The Court deserved the smackdown [sic] it got from the president of the United States last night, and Justice Sam Alito’s rude protest — this year’s Joe Wilson outburst — was just further proof of what a bunch of political hacks the justices have become,” Farrell wrote.

To call this a protest is a stretch, but perhaps a justifiable one. To call this an outburst is irresponsible. Comparing Alito to Wilson is idiotic. Shaking a head is not the same as pointing a finger. Mouthing, even for a usually solemn justice, isn’t the same as shouting. The media personalities should be ashamed of their sensationalism.

Plus, Obama wasn’t telling the whole truth when it comes to “foreign entities” supporting our campaigns.

The law that the president referred to, which can be found at Title 2 of the U.S. Code at Section 441e, says it is illegal for “a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make … a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value … in connection with a federal, state or local election.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion states, “We need not reach the question whether the government has a compelling interest in preventing foreign individuals or associations from influencing our nation’s political process.” That is because this is already a law — one that the Court doesn’t want to touch.

Some legal experts say the Supreme Court’s decision may lead to foreign contributions, but only further litigation will tell us for sure. Until then, Obama’s hypothesis is untested and unneeded. We have laws against this already.

The media shouldn’t be overstating Alito’s reaction to the president’s comments. Obama shouldn’t be overstating the impact of this decision. This kind of hype is expected from some media sources, but not from the president.

Michael Shepherd is a sophomore journalism student.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010, 4:50 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.