Sotomayor Will Take Oath at the Supreme Court on Saturday

UPDATE: A White House source says President Barack Obama wanted the oath-taking to occur at the Supreme Court "as a symbol of the Court's independence." There will be a White House reception for Sotomayor next week, the source indicated. 

--

In the wake of today's Senate vote confirming Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court, the Court announced that she will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Supreme Court. She'll be given the constitutional oath of office in a private ceremony in the justices' conference room, followed by the judicial oath in the East Conference Room  before a gathering of Sotomayor's friends and family. A formal investiture ceremony will take place on Sept. 8 with a special sitting of the Court.

Holding the ceremony at the Court rather than the White House is a significant break from recent practice, and represents something of a concession to the wishes of justices who have complained that the oath-taking has become an inappropriately political event.

Several justices -- most recently, Justice John Paul Stevens -- have objected to White House ceremonies for new justices, fearing that such events send the message that the justice is beholden to the appointing president or is a political trophy for the president. 

During a talk in February at the Newseum in D.C., Stevens recalled that when he became a justice in 1975, President Gerald Ford came to the Court for the swearing-in, but in recent years the trend has gone in the other direction. Administering the oath at the Court is more appropriate, Stevens said, because when the ritual is over “the justice is on his or her own” at the Court, separate from the president who made the appointment. “I was troubled by the incorrect symbolism” when justices were sworn in at the White House, Stevens said, asserting that it detracted from the “very separate status” of the Court. 

The issue arose within the Court in 1991 when Clarence Thomas was to be sworn in at the White House, according to correspondence contained in the late Justice Thurgood Marshall’s papers at the Library of Congress. “In my opinion a decision on where a Supreme Court investiture should be held should not be made in the executive branch,” Stevens wrote in a note to colleagues at the time. “We should do whatever we can to terminate the practice.” 

Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that one way to keep the ceremony from taking place at the White House would be to allow cameras to record the oath-giving if it occurred at the Supreme Court. “The president’s men are going to want good theater,” wrote Scalia, who otherwise had been a strong opponent of camera access to the Court. “As far as I am concerned, an investitutre ceremony is for show and not for go, and awareness of the camera’s presence is no problem.” Then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist allowed that Scalia’s proposed scheme was interesting, but might seem impolite. “It is somewhat awkward to invite someone to your house on the condition that he not invite you to his house.”

Comments

[Justice Stevens Watcher]

Justice Stevens has certainly been vocal for some time about this issue. In 1999 Justice Stevens gave a speech in which he
noted that he skipped the previous four such ceremonies. He also lamented his colleagues decision to attend those ceremonies. (He claimed it "blurs the critical distinction" between the two branches and sacrifices the independence of the judiciary. In his opinion no oath should be taken at the White House.)

But, it is worth noting that Justice Stevens broke his own rule by not only attending but CONDUCTING Chief Justice Roberts' 2005 White House swearing in. So, he's been inconsistent, at best.