Supreme Court Justices and the State of the Union

In case you missed it, President Obama delivered the annual State of the Union address last night. The address is rooted in Article II, section 3 of the Constitution, which provides in part that the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union." Contrary to popular belief, the Constitution does not mandate that the address be full of platitudes and political posturing -- that is merely a long-standing American tradition. Those interested in learning more about the history of the State of the Union address could do worse than reading the relevant Wikipedia entry. One of the interesting things about the State of the Union is that the Justices of the Supreme Court are always invited. Sometimes that creates controversy, as it did in 2010, when President Obama criticized the Citizens United decision, causing Justice Alito to mouth the words "not true" on camera. Other times, things go a little too smoothly, as they did last year when Justice Ginsburg fell asleep. How about this year? For starters, five of the nine Justices attended: the Chief Justice, and Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan. That's better than average attendance, as the New York Times discussed here. The attendance rate since 2000 has been just 32%. In several years, only Justice Breyer has been present. In 2000, Justice Breyer was ill and no Justice attended. Since his confirmation, Chief Justice Roberts has not missed a year. Though not addressed by the Times, it [...]