It's Not True...

Dahlia on Alito:

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the president's criticism of the court's decision, although as Linda Greenhouse points out, he was less than precise in his description of the holding. But there was also absolutely nothing inappropriate about the justice's reaction to him. Both the president and the justices are political actors, and all are entitled to screw up their faces and grumble in public as they see fit. Anyone who's watched Alito at oral argument at the high court knows that he screws up his face and mutters to himself all the time. The suggestion that he was showboating or grandstanding last night is spectacularly unfair. Unlike several of his colleagues, Alito is meticulously polite, balanced, and measured on the bench, and goes out of his way to shun big drama. I'm sure if Alito could take it back this morning he would. I'm equally sure that if he attends the next SOTU at all, he won't move so much as a muscle.

I think there's a world of difference between yelling out "You lie!" and muttering "It's not true." Maybe this violates some unspoken rule about judicial temperament. I don't know. I don't expect these guys to be robots. The president went after the court, and I was glad to see him do it. It seems silly to then ask justices to sit there and not react in the slightest.