By Jan Wolfe
Feb 24 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, who has excoriated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down his sweeping tariffs, is expected to come face-to-face with at least some of the justices when he delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
The annual address, which has created uncomfortable moments for Supreme Court justices in the past, could highlight the tensions between Trump and the three conservative justices who joined its three liberal members in the 6-3 ruling on Friday: Chief Justice John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.
The Republican president appointed Gorsuch in 2017 and Barrett in 2020 during his first term in office. Roberts has served as chief justice for more than two decades since being appointed by Republican former President George W. Bush in 2005.
After the ruling was issued on Friday, Trump denounced the court and the six justices who ruled against him. The court in the decision found that Trump had exceeded his powers by bypassing Congress and imposing the tariffs under a U.S. law meant for use in national emergencies.
‘AN EMBARRASSMENT’
Trump said he was “ashamed” of the three conservative justices who ruled against him, calling them “fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical-left Democrats.” RINO, meaning “Republican in name only,” is a term sometimes used by conservative Republicans to insult fellow Republicans viewed as disloyal to the party.
Gorsuch and Barrett, Trump said, were “an embarrassment to their families” for ruling against him on tariffs. Trump also alleged, without providing evidence, that the court has been “swayed by foreign interests.”
Trump, though, lauded the three justices who ruled in his favor, with high praise in particular for his 2018 appointee Brett Kavanaugh.
Supreme Court justices often attend the State of the Union address, and some of the current nine are expected to be present inside the U.S. House of Representatives chamber for Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress. The court has not yet said which justices will attend on Tuesday.
Customarily, justices who attend wear their judicial robes and typically sit expressionless.
The attendance of the justices “sends a message of stability” and “conveys that these aren’t enemy institutions,” Brown University political science professor Corey Brettschneider said.
In an address to Congress last year, Trump clasped Roberts by the hand, patted him on the shoulder, and told him: “Thank you again. I won’t forget.”
The remark came in the aftermath of a 2024 Supreme Court decision authored by Roberts granting Trump, who had faced criminal charges while out of office, broad immunity from prosecution for official acts as president. Trump later said he was thanking Roberts for swearing him at his inauguration.
Four justices attended Trump’s last formal State of the Union in 2020.
‘VERY TROUBLING’
Roberts has attended every State of the Union address since joining the Supreme Court, even though he has publicly questioned why he bothers.
“The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering, while the court, according to the requirements of protocol, has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling,” Roberts said during a 2010 speech at the University of Alabama, according to media reports.
“To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally,” Roberts added, “I’m not sure why we’re there.”
Roberts made those remarks after Democratic President Barack Obama during his State of the Union address criticized a Supreme Court ruling striking down certain campaign finance limits, saying it would “open the floodgates” to unlimited corporate and potentially foreign money in U.S. elections.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, present for the speech, reacted by shaking his head and appearing to mouth “not true,” a departure from the traditionally impassive demeanor of the justices.
Alito has shunned the State of the Union ever since, calling it a “very awkward” tradition.
In a 2015 interview with the American Spectator, a conservative news outlet, Alito indicated that justices may be placed in a difficult position attending State of the Union addresses.
“Every once in a while the president will say something that is nonpartisan,” Alito said. “We look foolish sitting there, so we stand up and start to applaud. And then we’ll get faked out. The president will get say, ‘This is a great country’ – and everyone will stand up and start to applaud – ‘because we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna enact this legislation.’ It’s a very odd experience.”
The late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia also had a policy of skipping the speech, which he once called a “childish spectacle.”
Democratic President Joe Biden during his 2024 State of the Union address looked directly at the justices who were present and admonished them over the court’s 2022 ruling that rolled back abortion rights.
“With all due respect, justices, women are not without … electoral or political power,” Biden said.
The last time all nine members of the court missed a State of the Union address was in 2000, near the end of Democratic President Bill Clinton’s second term. The court, in a public statement at the time, attributed the absences to “travel changes and minor illnesses.”
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham)
