New York (CNN) -- It was the most vivid, and unexpected, confrontation of Wednesday's State of the Union address. It happened when President Obama said this: "Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections." In the audience, Justice Samuel Alito, President Bush's second appointee to the Supreme Court, could be seen shaking his head and saying, it appeared, "Not true, not true." Who's right? As for what the court decided in Citizens United v. FEC, Obama seems to be right -- mostly. In a 5-4 decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by Alito, the court held that corporations, labor unions and other organizations had the right under the First Amendment to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcomes of elections.Jeffrey Toobin says a comment by President Obama led to an awkward momentHe says Justice Samuel Alito seemed to disagree on Obama's take on campaign finance rulingToobin says Obama was mostly right on the result of recent court decisionHe says Alito also was right to express his view; justices are human beings
When the President-elect _ made a courtesy call on the justices shortly before his inauguration last year, Alito was the only member of the court not to attend.)