Obama vs. Alito: Round 2

White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton on Thursday defended the president's statement.

''One of the great things about our democracy is that powerful members of the government at high levels can disagree in public and private,'' Burton told reporters traveling with Obama to Tampa, Fla. ''This is one of those cases. But the president is not less committed to seeing this reform.''

The law that Congress enacted in the populist days of the early 20th century prohibited direct corporate contributions to political campaigns. That law was not at issue in the Citizens United case, and is still on the books. Rather, the court struck down a more complicated statute that barred corporations and unions from spending money directly from their treasuries — as opposed to their political action committees — on television advertising to urge a vote for or against a federal candidate in the period immediately before the election.