High Court is Rare Topic for State of the Union Speeches

[depakid]

President Barack Obama's criticism of the Supreme Court in tonight's State of the Union address was... unusual

The third branch rarely even merits a mention in the State of the Union speeches, according to a search we've made going back to Woodrow Wilson's speech in 1913 in this University of California Santa Barbara database. (Thanks to editor David Brown for the research.)

Presidents have mentioned the Supreme Court by name only nine times since that Wilson speech nearly a century ago, according to the search, and it would be hard to categorize many of those nine as criticisms. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had a lot of grievances with the Court, never mentioned it in any of his State of the Union messages. And Richard Nixon, who campaigned against the Warren Court, mentioned the Supreme Court in a State of the Union talk only once, in 1972, in a bland, welcoming way.

In 1988 President Ronald Reagan made an indirect jab at the Court's school prayer rulings when he said, "And let me add here: So many of our greatest statesmen have reminded us that spiritual values alone are essential to our nation's health and vigor. The Congress opens its proceedings each day, as does the Supreme Court, with an acknowledgment of the Supreme Being. Yet we are denied the right to set aside in our schools a moment each day for those who wish to pray. I believe Congress should pass our school prayer amendment." In the same speech Reagan also urged the Senate to confirm Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court -- the very justice whose handiwork in Citizens United Obama was criticizing.

President Warren Harding in 1922 also urged passage of a constitutional amendment to counteract Supreme Court rulings -- the decisions that placed child labor "outside the proper domain of federal regulation," as he put it. Harding added, "We ought to amend to meet the demands of the people when sanctioned by deliberate public opinion."

In 2006, President George W. Bush thanked the Senate for confirming John Roberts Jr. and Samuel Alito Jr. and paid tribute to Sandra Day O'Connor, whose retirement become official the day of the speech.

Only President Calvin Coolidge routinely included the Supreme Court in his State of the Union addresses, but not to praise or damn it. It appears he had a "laundry list" approach to the speech, making sure to mention every sector of government, including the Supreme Court. In 1924, Coolidge offered the Court a helping hand, urging Congress to give the justices more discretion over their docket to reduce a congested docket. "Justice long delayed," Coolidge said, "is justice refused."

More: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/01/high-court-is-rare-topic-for-state-of-the-union-speeches.html

[ProSense]

1. It was great and well deserved. n/t

[depakid]

5. I was surprised that Roosevelt hadn't mentioned it

Then again, he chose to take a more direct and assertive approach to the problem with "The Judicial Reorganization Bill of 1937," which of course went down to defeat.

In one sense, though, it succeeded: Justice Owen Roberts switched positions and began voting to uphold New Deal measures, effectively creating a liberal majority that ended the odious the Lochner era, and giving the government more power in questions of economic policies.

Journo's called it "the switch in time that saved nine."

[wordpix]

2. in this case the Supremes deserve a good dressing down

[yurbud]

3. that was one of the highlights. He should have gone further and made them squirm

[doc03]

4. Well the President was just exorcising his right

to free speech.

[FrenchieCat]

6. After giving us Bush V. Gore and now this?

We didn't deserve them.....and I'm glad he brought them up, and called them out.

[Strawman]

7. Last remnant of the old school norms governing presidential rhetoric

Before Wilson it was considered unpresidential to address Congress in the State of the Union. I think washington and Adams did and that was it until Wilson. The SOTU was delivered in writing to Congres.

Presidents were supposed to be above the legislative fray and to scold the SCOTUS in the address would have unfathomable. Presidents didn't really give policy speeches. They did not "go public" in the way that they do now. One of the reasons Andrew Johnson was impeached was for violating this taboo.

In this day in age its an old custom that was probably overdue to be cast aside and Obama's criticism of the Court's decision (a brazenly political and partisan one) was warranted.