President Biden’s second State of the Union speech included some notable absences.
Four Supreme Court justices were surprisingly absent from the President’s speech.
Biden greeted five of the high court’s nine justices — John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — shortly before he began his speech, according to video footage of the event.
The four justices absent were Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Neil Gorsuch. It’s unclear why they were not in attendance.
The president spent a brief moment, in particular, with Jackson, the newest Supreme Court Justice and the first Black woman to hold a seat on the court. Jackson is the only justice Biden selected for the Supreme Court.
“The story of America is a story of progress and resilience,” Biden began his address. “Of always moving forward. Of never giving up. A story that is unique among all nations. We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it. That is what we are doing again.”
