Biden laid into SCOTUS justices to their faces in the State of the Union speech. They weren't amused.

• President Joe Biden criticized US Supreme Court justices in the State of the Union address.
• He hit out at the decision to overturn the Roe v Wade abortion rights ruling.

President Joe Biden directly challenged US Supreme Court justices in his State of the Union speech Thursday for overturning the landmark Roe v Wade legislation.

During the speech, Biden appeared to veer away from his scripted remarks when discussing the conservative-majority court's decision in 2022 to overturn the 1973 federal abortion rights ruling.

"With all due respect, justices, women are not without ... electoral or political power," he said in a rare direct address by a president to the justices.

Biden was referencing Justice Samuel Alito's opinion in the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that "women are not without electoral or political power," and the issue should be decided by female voters and state legislatures.

The president said the backlash from female voters would soon be felt.

"You're about to realize just how much," he added, in an apparently ad-libbed remark.

Six of the nine justices who attended the State of the Union, including three conservatives, sat stony-faced as Democrats seated near them stood to thunderously applaud the remarks. Alito did not attend the event.

Biden went on to promise that if Democrats make significant gains in November's election, he'll push to have Roe v. Wade restored.

"If you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again," Biden said.