Obama and the Law: Judicial Restraint at the Crossroads

Obama and the Law: Judicial Restraint at the Crossroads

Barack obama's first official State of the Union address began like most previous ones: speaking before a joint session of Congress on January 27, 2010, the president reviewed his administration's accomplishments to date, then offered a list of proposals for the coming year, including renewed efforts at job creation, government spending freezes beginning in 2010, and continued efforts at passing comprehensive health care reform. Yet none of Obama's various agenda items captured nearly as much attention as when he chose to comment during the address on the Supreme Court's six-day-old ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,1 which held that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in ...