Which justices skipped Obama’s address? And was their absence unusual in historical terms?
Six Supreme Court justices attended President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, a fairly high percentage given the average attendance in the prior decade.
Among those attending was Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., despite his comments in March 2010 that the event had become a “political pep rally.” Also in attendance were Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, report the National Law Journal and Time.
The three justices who skipped the address are Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. All have criticized the event in the past, Time points out.
Scalia has said the speech is a “childish spectacle,” while Thomas has said the event is “partisan” and it’s uncomfortable to attend. Alito quit going after the press noted his reaction to Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United ruling in 2010—the justice mouthed “not true.”
The attendance rate is fairly high, given historical practice. Visiting Washington & Lee law professor Todd Peppers and Emory University professor Michael Giles calculated attendance rates of the justices in this 2012 article (PDF) cited by Time. Their findings are based on recorded addresses stretching back to 1961, photographs of prior addresses, and newspaper articles.
The professors found that justices attended seven of the 35 State of the Union Addresses given orally between 1913 and 1964. Scheduling was sometimes a problem, since addresses were delivered during the day.
Since 1965, when addresses were given in the evening, the attendance rate has varied. In 1975, none attended the address for President Ford, and in 2000, none attended the address of President Clinton, the study says.
On average, 84 percent of the justices attended the addresses from 1965 to 1980. From 1982 to 1999, on average only 56 percent of the justices attended. From 2000 through 2011, only 32 percent of the justices attended. During that period, there were three addresses attended by just a single justice– Breyer.
Peppers and Giles found that attendance diminishes for justices as they age, and is higher when the president giving the address appointed the justice.
