At Trump’s State of the Union, Supreme Court justices are in the spotlight

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump, who has excoriated the US Supreme Court’s decision striking down his sweeping tariffs, came face-to-face with some of the justices when he delivered his State of the Union address on the night of Feb 24

The annual address highlighted Mr Trump’s frustration with the three conservative justices who joined its three liberal members in the 6-3 ruling on Feb 20: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

Mr Roberts and Ms Barrett attended, with their colleagues Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan. Mr Trump greeted and shook hands with all four justices as he arrived. Mr Gorsuch was among the five justices who skipped the 2026 speech.

Mr Trump called the Supreme Court’s ruling “very unfortunate” and “disappointing” during his speech, but reiterated his administration’s longstanding position that alternative legal mechanisms can be used to impose similar tariffs.

These alternative legal statutes “have been tested for a long time,” Mr Trump said. “They are a little more complex but they are actually probably better.”

The Republican President appointed Mr Gorsuch in 2017 and Ms Barrett in 2020 during his first term in office. Mr 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 Feb 20, Mr Trump denounced the court and the six justices who ruled against him.

The court in the decision found that Mr Trump had exceeded his powers by bypassing Congress and imposing the tariffs under a US law meant for use in national emergencies.

‘An embarrassment’

Mr 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.

Mr Gorsuch and Ms Barrett, Mr Trump said, were “an embarrassment to their families” for ruling against him on tariffs. Mr Trump also alleged, without providing evidence, that the court has been “swayed by foreign interests”.

Mr Trump, though, lauded the three justices who ruled in his favour, with high praise in particular for Mr Kavanaugh, his 2018 appointee.

Supreme Court justices often attend the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress inside the US House of Representatives chamber.

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”, said Brown University political science professor Corey Brettschneider.

In an address to Congress in 2025, Mr Trump clasped Mr 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 Mr Roberts granting Mr Trump, who had faced criminal charges while out of office, broad immunity from prosecution for official acts as president.

Mr Trump later said he was thanking Mr Roberts for swearing him in at his inauguration.

Four justices attended Mr Trump’s last formal State of the Union in 2020.

‘Very troubling’

Mr 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,” Mr 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,” Mr Roberts added, “I’m not sure why we’re there.”

Mr Roberts made those remarks after former Democratic president Barack Obama, during his State of the Union address, criticised a Supreme Court ruling striking down certain campaign finance limits, saying it would “open the floodgates” to unlimited corporate and potentially foreign money in US 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 demeanour of the justices.

Mr 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, Mr 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 non-partisan,” Mr 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 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”.

Former 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,” Mr 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 former 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”. REUTERS