As expected, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg won’t be among the Justices who attend the State of the Union address by President Trump tonight.
According to The Hill, the notorious RBG will be skipping out, though it reported that it won’t be for health reasons as many have speculated. What’s more, she won’t be the only one:
The Supreme Court’s Public Information Office said it expects only Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to attend the proceedings in the House chamber.
Ginsburg, 85, has been closely watched since a Dec. 21 surgery to remove cancerous nodules from her lower left lung forced her to miss oral arguments last month, but the 85-year-old’s expected absence from the annual event likely isn’t health related.
While it’s not uncommon for justices to skip the State of the Union — Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito haven’t been in years out of principle — Ginsburg is usually present, and popularly dozed off during the 2015 State of the Union address given by then President Barack Obama.
While Thomas has stated that he doesn’t attend due to the partisan nature of the speeches making it uncomfortable for a judge to attend, and Alito not having attended since Obama used his State of the Union to attack the Supreme Court justices in 2010.
Ginsburg, however, is just coming off an incredibly taxing surgery and has been missing from the public eye for some time now, causing many to speculate that her health is far worse off than many would like to admit, as well as spawning some macabre conspiracy theories.
Her lack of presence at the State of the Union tonight is going to throw the conspiracy community into overdrive.
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