I know that George Washington and John Adams gave addresses to Congress in person, but Thomas Jefferson thought that was too monarchical and sent written reports instead (every President did the same until Woodrow Wilson). Does the practice of the Justices of the Supreme Court attending date all the way back to Washington’s time (carried over from Throne Speeches) or is it more recent?
I can’t answer that directly but here’s a related answer. Attendance has not been very high for quite some time.
Attendance among the justices has been declining: From 1965 through 1980, the attendance rate was 84 percent. Over the next two decades, the number dropped to 53 percent. Since 2000, the rate has fallen to 32 percent, according to a study by Todd Peppers of Roanoke College and Michael Giles of Emory University.
If Stephen Breyer was in attendance Tuesday, I believe he’s the only active justice with perfect attendance for his tenure.
This study attempts to track the presence of members of the Court from Wilson’s renewal of the address in 1913 and it looks like attendance has been fairly inconsistent over the years. I don’t know if there is information for Washington and Adams.
On Firefox for Mac, the screen pops back to this page but a pdf also opens. I haven’t seen that happen before.
The paper is “Of Potted Plants and Political Images: The Supreme Court and the State of the Union Address,” by Todd C. Peppers and Micheal W. Giles. No indication where it appeared. It appears to study through 2010.
They point out that until 1965, the SofU was held in the morning, so it often conflicted with the Supreme Court’s standard schedule. Even when it didn’t it was rare for Justices to show up. There are no official records of who showed up for most of that period. They used press photographs to look at the front row, which is where the Justices normally sit.
Since it was moved to the evening in 1966, there were nine years in which no Justices showed up. Those are spread over several administrations and no pattern seems to emerge. (However, I skimmed and didn’t read all 36 pages.) Since 1965 John Paul Stevens had the lowest rate of attendance, 23.3%. Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and David Souter follow. A half dozen have had perfect attendance.