“The Union Forever” is a song inspired by Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane. In an interview with Spin magazine, White Stripes lead singer Jack White explained that some of the lyrics were taken from the film (which he claimed to have watched over 3 dozen times).

I was thinking about different things people said in the film. I wrote them down and some of them started to rhyme, so it worked out

In 2003, Warner Brothers, who own the rights to the film, threatened The White Stripes with a lawsuit over copyright-infringement, but never followed through.