Chief Justice (Political Hack) of the United States (Republican) Supreme Court John Roberts is worried that having Justices attend the State of the Union speeches is bad for their image. The SOTU has become a "political pep rally" that is beneath the dignity and role of the Supreme Court.
In this Justice Roberts is quite correct. However, the problem is not the political posturing of the members of Congress - though obviously the GOP caucus is increasingly made up of people who simply don't know how to behave in a civilized socity. The problem for the Supreme Court is that the Court itself is increasingly made up of exactly the same type of political hack as the Republican Party's Congressional delegation.
Alito, Scalia and Thomas can't and shouldn't attend because they haven't managed to achieve a level of maturity and sophistication I expect from my 8-year-old daughter. Even my 4-year-old son, for whom a 'whisper' is just speaking in a hoarse voice that is louder than his normal speaking voice, manages to act better in polite settings, because he doesn't feel it necessary to loudly defend his delusional worldview.
The SOTU address is, IMO, a silly waste of time no matter who is President. But these speeches will become even more uncomfortable for us as the Republican party continues its devolution into a party that not only has a base of mouth-breathing, self-centered jerks, but is represented by the worst of that sort they can find.
Someone will embarass himself or herself tonight by insulting the President, I'm sure of it. I'm perfectly fine for those members of the Supreme Court who would join those ranks to just be somewhere else. Clarence Thomas in particular has some work to do bringing himself back within the ranks of the law-abiding.
