Chief Justice John Roberts says it's "very troubling" that President Obama criticized a Supreme Court decision amid a "pep-rally" atmosphere at his State of the Union address. Obama said in the speech that the decision to allow corporations to spend freely on campaign ads "opened the floodgates for special interests," sparking cheers from Democrats who surrounded the justices.
Anyone is free to criticize the court, Roberts told a law school class in Alabama, but "the image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court—according to the requirements of protocol—has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling." Roberts also questioned whether justices should continue attending State of the Union addresses, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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