Trump Confronts Critical Supreme Court Justices at State of the Union After Landmark Tariff Ruling

President Donald Trump, who has sharply criticised the US Supreme Court’s decision striking down his sweeping tariffs, came face to face with several of the justices when he delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

 

The annual address underscored Trump’s frustration with the three conservative justices who joined the court’s three liberal members in the 6–3 ruling on Friday: Chief Justice John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

 

Roberts and Barrett attended the speech, along with colleagues Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan. Trump greeted and shook hands with all four justices upon arrival. Gorsuch was among the five members of the court who did not attend this year’s address.

 

During his speech, Trump described the ruling as “very unfortunate” and “disappointing”, while reiterating his administration’s longstanding position that alternative legal mechanisms could be used to impose similar tariffs.

 

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

 

The Republican president appointed Gorsuch in 2017 and Barrett in 2020 during his first term in office. Roberts has served as Chief Justice for more than two decades, having been appointed in 2005 by former Republican President George W. Bush.

 

In its ruling, the court found that Trump had exceeded his authority by bypassing Congress and imposing the tariffs under a U.S. law intended for use during national emergencies. Following the decision, Trump denounced the court and the six justices who ruled against him.

 

‘An embarrassment’

Trump said he was “ashamed” of the three conservative justices who joined the majority, calling them “fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical-left Democrats”. The acronym RINO, meaning “Republican in name only”, is used by some conservatives to criticise fellow Republicans viewed as insufficiently loyal to the party.

 

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

 

At the same time, Trump praised the three justices who dissented, singling out Kavanaugh — his 2018 appointee — for particular commendation.

 

Supreme Court justices often attend the State of the Union address, delivered to a joint session of Congress in the House of Representatives chamber. Those who attend customarily wear their judicial robes and sit impassively throughout the speech.

 

Corey Brettschneider, a political science professor at Brown University, said the presence of the justices “sends a message of stability” and conveys that the branches of government are not “enemy institutions”.

 

In last year’s address to Congress, Trump clasped Roberts’ hand, patted him on the shoulder and said: “Thank you again. I won’t forget.”

 

The remark followed a 2024 Supreme Court decision authored by Roberts granting Trump broad immunity from prosecution for official acts undertaken while president, after he had faced criminal charges while out of office. Trump later said he had been thanking Roberts for administering the oath of office at his inauguration.

 

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

 

‘Very troubling’

Roberts has attended every State of the Union address since joining the court, although he has publicly questioned the practice.

 

“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 protocol, has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling,” Roberts said in 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,” he added, “I’m not sure why we’re there.”

 

Roberts made those remarks after Democratic President Barack Obama criticised a Supreme Court ruling during his State of the Union address, warning that it would “open the floodgates” to unlimited corporate — and potentially foreign — money in U.S. elections.

 

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who was present at the time, reacted by shaking his head and appearing to mouth “not true”, departing from the court’s traditionally impassive demeanour.

 

Alito has since declined to attend the annual address, describing it as a “very awkward” tradition. In a 2015 interview with the American Spectator, he suggested that justices could be placed in a difficult position by attending.

 

“Every once in a while the president will say something that is non-partisan,” Alito said. “We look foolish sitting there, so we stand up and start to applaud. And then we’ll get faked out.”

 

The late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia also routinely skipped the speech, once describing it as a “childish spectacle”.

 

Democratic President Joe Biden, during his 2024 State of the Union address, looked directly at the justices in attendance and admonished them over the court’s 2022 ruling that curtailed abortion rights.

 

“With all due respect, justices, women are not without … electoral or political power,” Biden said.

 

The last time all nine members of the court were absent from a State of the Union address was in 2000, towards the end of Democratic President Bill Clinton’s second term. At the time, the court cited “travel changes and minor illnesses” in a public statement explaining the collective absence.

 

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