The conservative bloc of the Supreme Court came out in force at President Donald Trump’s state dinner for King Charles at the White House on Tuesday evening.
Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett all turned up at the dinner for the king, according to CNN, dining alongside Trump officials, Republican congressmen, tech billionaires, and media moguls.
The Supreme Court’s three liberal justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—did not make the guest list, according to Vanity Fair.
The conservative justices’ appearance at Charles’ dinner—where a lavish, French-inspired three-course menu was served—comes just hours after the British monarch, 77, emphasized the Supreme Court’s role in checking presidential power during an address to Congress.
“The U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances,” Charles said.
The king’s nod to checks and balances got a standing ovation from lawmakers throughout the room, even as Republicans have been accused of kowtowing to Trump during his second term.
Meanwhile, critics have accused conservative justices—three of whom were appointed by Trump—of being overly deferential to the president, despite their supposed nonpartisan role.
There has been infighting among the justices themselves, with liberal members of the court sounding the alarm over their conservative counterparts’ “shadow docket” rulings, which have allowed Trump to implement his sweeping agenda despite lower court rulings blocking it.
At the same time, however, Trump has lashed out at conservative justices for their occasional rulings against him—seemingly forgetting or choosing to disregard Charles’s case for the courts’ role in checking executive power.
The president raged at the justices for wanting to be independent in a Truth Social rant last week, writing, “Certain Republican Appointees let the Democrats push them around, always wanting to be popular, politically correct, or even worse, wanting to show how ‘independent’ they are, with very little loyalty to the man who appointed them or, more importantly, the ideology from which they came to be Nominated and Confirmed.”
Kavanaugh, who came with his wife, Ashley Kavanaugh, was spotted sitting next to Wyoming Senator John Barrasso.
The justices were joined at the dinner by business leaders, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, among others, according to Vanity Fair.
A host of Fox figures also came out to the White House, including hosts Bret Baier, Maria Bartiromo, Greg Gutfeld, Laura Ingraham, and Jesse Watters.
