Ramtin Arablui and Randa Abdelfattah

The nine Supreme Court justices were sitting in the front row for his address.

At one point, Obama says... Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law...

He actually comments on Citizens United, and Alito mouths, not true.

All nine of the justices, including Samuel Alito, sat unmoved while legislators rose to applause all around them.

I think super PACs really make their impact in the 2012 elections where you have a presidential race.

If you remember the 2012 race, Mitt Romney emerges eventually as the nominee.

This is Northwestern law professor Michael Kang.

But he has to kind of fend off challenges from like Rick Santorum, who really relies almost entirely on super PAC money.

Who has the best chance to beat Obama?

Rick Santorum, a full spectrum conservative.

This was known as the zombie candidate moment, where candidates whose campaigns appeared to be dead rose from their graves.

Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign was effectively dead.

This is Henrik Schatzinger, who teaches political science at Ripon College.

He's got a book coming out this year called Super PACs in the City.

He had no money, no staff, no momentum.

In the old world, he would have just dropped out, end of the campaign.

But this was the new world, where just one wealthy donor could keep a candidate alive.

And so Gingrich went actually from being dead in the water to winning that South Carolina primary with super PAC money.

But it wasn't just Republicans who made the 2012 election significant for super PACs.

So the turning point is when Obama's team gave the green light to a super PAC.