In an unprecedented act of bad manners the POTUS used the SOTU to blast the SCOTUS — while they sat only a few feet in front of him. It appears that Justice Alito mouthed the words “not true” after Obama pronounced that last week’s Supreme Court decision would “open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.”

In fact, the limits on foreign nationals and foreign corporations remain in place. Bradley A. Smith, law professor at Capitol University Law School says:

Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibited from making “a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election” under 2 U.S.C. Section 441e, which was not at issue in the case. Foreign corporations are also prohibited, under 2 U.S.C. 441e, from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any “expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication.”

He concludes by saying:

This is either blithering ignorance of the law, or demagoguery of the worst kind.

I concur.