Amy Coney Barrett Skips Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett skipped President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union speech on Thursday night.

Coney Barrett was among three conservative justices to skip the speech, joining Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The other conservatives, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, were present.

All three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, were also in attendance, as was retired justice Anthony Kennedy, who was replaced by Kavanaugh by former President Donald Trump.

The reason for the absence of Coney Barrett is unclear. She was among five justices who attended Biden’s State of the Union last year. Sotomayor, Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch all missed last year’s address.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the White House via email on Thursday night.

This year, eyebrows were raised on social media mostly over the absence of Thomas, following a series of controversial decisions that were preceded by many on the political left urging him to recuse himself.

“Clarence Thomas recused himself from the #SOTU!” Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

“Clarence Thomas didn’t show up to the State of the Union,” posted Democratic attorney and commentator Kaivan Shroff. “I guess I prefer it that way given his wife’s role in the insurrection. We don’t need him or his wife back at the Capitol.”

“Just In: The ‘real’ Supreme Court Chief Justice Clarence Thomas skips Biden’s #SOTU. Gangsta move,” conservative journalist Kyle Becker posted.

However, the absence of Thomas was not unexpected, as he has skipped every State of the Union since 2006, including all of those delivered by Trump. Likewise, Alito has been absent from the occasion since 2010. Prior to Thursday, Sotomayor had missed every speech since 2016.

The decision to not attend the State of the Union addresses may be rooted in a desire by the justices to distance themselves from the increasingly partisan nature of the event, with partisanship likely to be at a high during an election year.

Thomas in particular has been vocal about his discomfort with the partisanship, catcalls and muttering that often accompany these speeches, maintaining that they make it uncomfortable for a judge to sit through.

He has expressed concern that such an environment is not conducive for members of the judiciary, who are expected to remain above the political fray.

“I don’t go because it has become so partisan and it’s very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there,” Thomas told The New York Times. “There’s a lot that you don’t hear on TV— the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments.”

Roberts, who did attend, has described the State of the Union as “a political pep rally.” Alito has voiced similar opinions, while complaining during a 2014 interview with The American Spectator that justices “sit there like potted plants” when they do attend.