Mr. President, to use the words of a wise man, “You Lie!” about the Supreme Court. What Obama said, and why he was wrong.

In the State of the Union Speech on Jan 28, 2010, Barack Obama badmouthed the USSC and their decision to uphold the 1st Amendment.

“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,” Obama said. “Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

According to Justice Samuel Alito, what the President said was not true. You can see him say not true to the President in this clip.

Interestingly, according to Bradley A. Smith, the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School, Alito was correct.

The Court held that 2 U.S.C. Section 441a, which prohibits all corporate political spending, is unconstitutional. Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibiting 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… .”

Bradley A. Smith is also a former Commissioner, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

This decision does not open floodgates for foreign corporations because it does not reverse the law that prevents foreign corporations from contributing. And before you say anything, yes, in this globalized world where you can trade Sony on the US Stock Exchange, you can still tell if a corporation is foreign or not.

Someone please tell the President of the United States that if he is going to use the State of the Union Speech to badmouth the highest court in the land, he should brush up on the law just a tad.