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John Roberts gets it right (for once)
Chief Justice John Roberts is wrong about a lot of things — most things, Translation?Qingdaoactually — but he may be right when he suggests that he and his black-robed colleagues should give the State of the Union address a pass. Hydraulic HoseTheir presence looks like a tradition whose time has come and gone.

“To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally, I’m not sure why we’re there,” Roberts said Tuesday at the University of Alabama, elucidating the obvious. Politics? At the State of the Union? Let’s all pause for a moment while we get over the shock.

Roberts was complaining about the moment in January’s speech when President Obama blasted the court’s anything-goes decision on campaign finance. Six justices were in attendance, including three who voted with the majority; Justice Samuel Alito couldn’t keep himself from mouthing the words “not true” and shaking his head. Much comment ensued.

“The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according to the requirements of protocol — Hydraulic Hosehas to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling,” Roberts said told a group of ’Bama law students.

He’s got a point. Obama had every right to call the justices out for a decision that he (and, ahem, many others) believes was wrong. But, as The Post’s Eva Rodriguez noted this afternoon, in such a political atmosphere it’s unrealistic to expect the targets of presidential wrath to sit like cyborgs,Translation?Qingdao betraying not a hint of reaction. I would go further, and ask whether it is necessary, or even appropriate, for them to go at all.

It’s not as if Alito did the full Joe Wilson and yelled “You lie!” or even “You misinterpret the equal protection clause!” He shook his head and muttered — and even in a setting of such high ceremony, some allowance has to be made for muttering.

But really, what are the justices doing there anyway? The State of the Union is an occasion for the president to lay out his agenda. The Supremes’ work shouldn’t be affected by anything the president says. Their only role is as props, their presence a reminder that our government has a third, less visible, branch. A better way to bring home this civics lesson would be for the court to allow oral arguments and other proceedings to be televised. Then the nation would learn something.

On State of the Union night, the justices can get together at the courthouse,Hydraulic Hose order some takeout and watch the whole thing on the tube. Translation?QingdaoThey’ll be free to cheer and boo all they want, just like the rest of us.