It’s traditionally been customary for most or all of the Supreme Court to attend the State of the Union address. However, when Donald Trump delivered this year’s State of the Union on Tuesday, he failed to attract a majority of the high court.
According to People, just four of the nine justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — attended the speech. The other five — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch — were not there. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were both appointed to the court by Trump in his first term.
Ahead of tonight’s SOTU, see which Supreme Court justices have attended presidential addresses to Congress across the Trump and Biden administrations. @sfrostenson @afishley_pnghttps://t.co/YSqMeYvrQt pic.twitter.com/X0oBVhHevm
— Ann Marimow (@amarimow) February 24, 2026
The surprisingly sparse attendance by members of the Supreme Court came days after the Court ruled against Trump, striking down his justification for tariffs. It was a 6-3 decision, with Kavanaugh, Alito, and Thomas in the minority and the other six justices voting in the majority.
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“It was an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court, a very unfortunate ruling,” Trump said in the State of the Union speech. He had called the court “a disgrace to our nation” days earlier.
Per the New York Times, Thomas and Alito have never attended the State of the Union address since Trump’s first one in 2017, while Sotomayor has only attended twice.
“There have been tense moments before as the jurists have perched within easy eyesight of a sitting president they have ruled against. But perhaps never before has the moment been so fraught as it will be on Tuesday night,” the Times wrote the day before the address.
“Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the opinion, declaring that Mr. Trump had exceeded his legal authority when he relied on an emergency statute to impose sweeping tariffs without congressional approval. The chief justice was joined by the three liberal justices but also two of Mr. Trump’s first-term picks for the bench, Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
