Will Justices Attend the Speech?

There may be a few empty seats around the Supreme Court justices at Tuesday's State of the Union address. One year after a much-publicized incident in which President Obama took a swipe at the court's Citizens United decision and Justice Samuel Alito mouthed, "Not true," there figures to be few conservative justices in attendance. Alito said last year that he would not attend this year's address. Justices Scalia and Thomas, who rarely attend (and did not attend last year), are not expected this year either. So now attention turns to Chief Justice John Roberts, who has complained that the speech is a "political pep rally." Court watchers say the absences may be mostly an indication of a recent trend toward extreme polarization between the liberal and conservative justices on the land's highest court.