In 2006, legal commentator Jeffrey Rosen wrote that the Roberts court was among the most united and civil in history. In this month’s New Republic, however, Rosen revisits the Court to find it factionalizing in surprising ways, threatening the existence of any single definition of legal conservatism. While Rosen puts the blame on no one, one new phenomenon of the past five years seems directly related to this rift: the Tea Party, for which Rosen argues Justice Clarence Thomas has emerged as its “legal arm.”

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Newly minted Fox News contributor Sarah Palin went live last night with Sean Hannity, providing her off-the-cuff reactions to the State of the Union speech. What did we learn? That she thought the President’s speech was an uninspired lecture; that either Obama or Justice Alito was being disingenuous; and that Americans didn’t like Obama’s health care reform because of the government takeover and “mandation.” No, that’s not a real common word.Video after the jump.

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Can this be considered the equivalent of a Supreme Court heckle? Close to an hour into his address tonight President Obama called out the Supreme Court’s recent decision to remove all limits on what corporations can spend on an election and to their faces. Justice Alito was not happy.