A majority of the Supreme Court is in attendance at this year’s State of the Union address.
Members of the court just walked into the chamber, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson — which is her first time attending.
Members of the Supreme Court usually attend the State of the Union, though they do not play an official role. Roberts has said in the past that he is not always content attending the event that is so geared around politics, but he is the only sitting justice to go to every address since joining the court in 2005.
Over the years, some combination of justices have always crossed the street to attend the speech, but others have refrained either due to scheduling conflicts or the feeling that the event has devolved into what the late Justice Antonin Scalia referred to as a “childish spectacle.”
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor are not in the chamber this year. The last time all nine sitting justices attended the speech was in 1977.
CNN’s Ethan Cohen and Melissa DePalo contributed reporting to this post.
