If you watched the State of the Union last week, you probably saw Justice Samuel Alito take exception to President Obama’s entirely accurate characterization of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC.

Some people were outraged by Justice Alito’s lack of decorum, but not E. J. Dionne in the Washington Post.

Alito did not like the president making an issue of the court’s truly radical intervention in politics. I disagree with Alito on the law and the policy, but I have no problem with his personal expression of displeasure.

On the contrary, I salute him because his candid response brought home to the country how high the stakes are in the battle over the conservative activism of Chief Justice John Roberts’s court.

Hopefully, Justice Alito’s actions at the State of the Union will help feed the conversation about the damage done by the Court’s decision in Citizens United and what can be done to fix it.