A Supreme Court justice in the spotlight

There is no question Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito reacted negatively to President Obama during last night's State of the Union address.

This YouTube clip shows Justice Alito (back row, left) shaking his head and mouthing what appears to be "not true" as the president criticized a decision the Supreme Court made last week that allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money in campaign ads.

The Washington Post is among many newspapers also discussing what happened. The basics of the report are found in that article.

All media are not as impartial. Salon's Glenn Greenwald argues that Justice's Alito's actions undermined the tradition of Court members attending the State of the Union address but offering no reaction (positive or negative) to anything the president says.

Not so fast, according to the Associated Press. It (correctly) points out that the president also broke with tradition in opting to criticize a Supreme Court decision during his State of the Union.

Nevertheless, as we are forced to agree that Justice Alito reacted, can't we also agree that whatever he did was a minor sideshow to the State of the Union? Moreover, there would be little politically that President Obama and Justice Alito would agree upon. But more importantly, there is no other way to view what happened last night than this -- either both men were right in what they said and did, or both men were wrong.

In my opinion, you cannot support the actions of one and criticize the actions of the other.

Now, let's move on to more important matters.