At the stroke of noon, on January 20, 2009, Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to President Barack Obama at the U.S. Capitol. Stumbles and mistakes in the oath prompted an unprecedented “redo” of the oath the following day at the White House. (photo credit i2)
Chief Justice John Roberts readministers the oath of office to President Barack Obama in the Map Room at the White House on January 21, 2009. The portrait is of Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the Capitol. (photo credit i3)
Chief Justice Roberts prepared this card in advance of the inauguration to guide how the oath would be administered. (Roberts added a comma after “ability.”) Aides to Roberts sent this card to the congressional inaugural committee, but it never reached anyone on Obama’s staff.
On January 14, 2009, the president-elect and vice president-elect visited the Supreme Court by invitation of the chief justice. Eight justices greeted them, and Samuel Alito chose not to attend. From left: Barack Obama, John Roberts, John Paul Stevens, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, Joseph Biden. (photo credit i4)
Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the East Room of the White House on January 29, 2009, with a smiling Ledbetter herself (center, with blond hair and pin) looking on. This was the first piece of legislation Obama signed as president, and it overturned Justice Alito’s opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (photo credit i5)
Antonin Scalia, shown here (right), with Stephen Breyer at a congressional hearing in 2011, has been a dominant conservative voice on the Court for decades. (photo credit i6)
Dick Heller, a District of Columbia police officer who challenged the D.C. law preventing individuals from keeping private handguns, signs autographs after the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment gives Americans a right to keep guns in their homes. (photo credit i7)
After her confirmation, Sonia Sotomayor hugs her mother, Celina Sotomayor, during a reception in the East Room of the White House on August 12, 2009. (photo credit i8)
The current 4-4 conservative-liberal split on the court has made Anthony Kennedy (shown here) the most powerful justice in decades. His swing vote has controlled the outcome of many cases, including Citizens United. (photo credit i9)
The Obama administration’s anger over the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United prompted Obama to rebuke the justices during his State of the Union address on January 27, 2010. (photo credit i10)
Justice Alito mouthed “not true” and shook his head as Obama described the consequences of the Citizens United decision during his 2010 State of the Union address. Justices (top row, from left) Alito, Sotomayor, (bottom row, from left) Roberts and Kennedy. (photo credit i11)
After Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination was announced in 2010, The Wall Street Journal ran this photograph of Kagan playing softball while she was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. The New York Post reran the photo with a headline suggesting she was a lesbian. (photo credit i12)
Obama’s second Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, shown here with Obama and Chief Justice Roberts, takes her place as the 112th justice of the Supreme Court in 2010. (photo credit i13)
From left to right, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan. This is the first time in history that three women have served on the Supreme Court at the same time. (photo credit i14)
President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton share a victory hug after the House of Representatives voted to pass health care reform in March 2010. (photo credit i15)
Virginia Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, speaks out against Obama’s health care reform law at a Tea Party rally outside the U.S. Capitol in 2010. Her activities raised concerns about the propriety of a justice’s spouse being a leader in a political movement. (photo credit i16)
Clarence and Virginia Thomas at a Federalist Society meeting in Washington in 2007. (photo credit i17)
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. on the Supreme Court steps during a brief recess from oral arguments on health care reform in 2012. The justices gave Verrilli a tough time but ultimately vindicated him by ruling in his favor. (photo credit i18)
The current members of the Supreme Court: (back row, from left) Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, (front row, from left) Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (photo credit i19)