Some Justices will not attend State of the Union. Its happended many times in the past.

Who will not be in attendance at the State of the Union partisan presidential performance may be as much the news tonight, as anything Barack Obama has to say. We believe that Alito will be joined by Thomas and Scalia in absenting themselves from the annual political pep rally. There is a question as to whether Chief Justice Roberts will attend, but we believe that, in fact, he will be in attendance.

Part of this is in response to Obama's classless and partisan attack on the High Court for its January 25 Citizens United vs FEC decision, two days before his State of the Union speech, a decision that allowed for corporate and union speech to be protected by the the Constitution, opening the door to the expense of unlimited funding donations from these sources. Obama claimed that this decision would open the doors to foreign influences. While he pretended, for a brief time, to be concerned for Constitutional principles, Obama was actually upset because it allowed for big business to respond [read : "fight back"] to his constant vilification of the corporate world during all of 2009.

Last November 2, our midterm was funded in much the same manner as in the past. China or Russia did not take over influence against the United States and the Dems collected a third more money than the GOP, as usual . . . . . . . . . and Obama has still not revealed all the donors to his 2008 campaign; $400 million of the $800 collected by the Obama campaign remains off limit for the sake of electorial transparency.

Back to the attendance issue. Know that some of the justices will not be in attendance. They are tired of the catcalls and under-the-breath insults that never get the attention of the national media, not to mention Obama's potential for partisan slander against the High Court.

This is not the first time justices have not attended the speech. In 2000, none of the High Court was present. Last year, Justice Thomas was absent. Roberts predecessor, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, seldom attended this event. Ditto for recently retired John Paul Stevens who almost never attended the speech.

Point of post: there is precedent for justices skipping out on this speech. Justice Scalia is the most openly critical of the event. He has been quoted as saying, "You just sit there, looking stupid . . . . I don't know at what point that happened, but it has happened, and now you go and sit there like bumps on a log while applause lines cause one half of the Congress to leap up while [another line] causes the other half to leap up. It is a juvenile spectacle. And I resent being called upon to give it dignity."

We fully agree.