A majority of Supreme Court justices did not attend Donald Trump’s joint speech to Congress Tuesday night, among them two of the court’s three liberals: Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Also absent were Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas.
Those in attendance were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Former Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018 and was replaced by Kavanaugh, joined members of the current court for the occasion.
During his first administration, Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices: Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
At last year’s State of the Union address by then-President Joe Biden, all three liberals on the bench attended. They were joined then by Chief Justice John Roberts, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch.
In 2023, Sotomayor did not attend, and neither did Thomas, Alito or Gorsuch.
To read into justices' absences for Trump’s speech is a difficult task, Roll Call Editor-in-Chief Jason Dick noted on C-SPAN.
“Justice Alito has been skipping this for a number of years,” he said, alluding to the backlash the George W. Bush appointee received for appearing to mouth the words “not true” at one point during President Barack Obama’s 2010 address.
“Thomas has also skipped quite a few lately,” he went on. “It‘s not surprising to me, because I do think some people are feeling like that they don‘t have to be there. They‘ve done this before. A lot of them have done this before, even for people who are relatively new.”
When asked if the absences of Brown Jackson and Sotomayor could be “a protest,” Dick said it was possible—but so was a desire to “catch up on Black Doves on Netflix.”
Trump, during his speech, appeared to credit the court for its 2023 ruling ending affirmation action in college admissions when he said the court has helped bring about his goal to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Earlier Tuesday, the conservative-majority court weakened an Environmental Protection Agency rule aimed at curbing offshore water pollution.
