'This Week' in History: Obama Skeptical of Roberts' Supreme Court Nomination

— -- The White House and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court engaged in an unusual debate this week over how the President should behave. "Very troubling" were Chief Justice John Roberts' words to describe the environment President Obama created when he criticized the Supreme Court's ruling on campaign finance reform during his State of the Union Address.

The President and the Chief Justice have a history. Roberts tripped over the oath of office at the President's inauguration, but we went into the This Week vaults to find this tape from 2005, when then-Senator Barack Obama appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos the day before John Roberts' confirmation hearings began. "A political philosophy that typically errs on the side of the powerful rather than the powerless, that's a judicial philosophy that can make worse, can exacerbate some of the problems that we have in this country," Obama said.

Four years later, President Obama's objections to Roberts' rulings remained rooted in his concern that the court will not protect the underprivileged. "Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests," Obama told the nation on January 27 at his State of the Union Address.

During the speech, most of the Supreme Court justices in attendance, with the exception of Justice Alito, remained expressionless even as Obama criticized their recent ruling on campaign finance reform. While Justice Alito seemed to mouth the words "not true" in response to the President's unorthodox interjection into court rulings, Chief Justice Roberts did not express his outrage – at least not that night.

While speaking to a group of law students at the University of Alabama, Chief Justice Robert broke his silence. "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 the requirements of protocol - has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling," Roberts said.