October 2, 2022
The Supreme Court will be back in session starting Monday.
That means the newest Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will take her seat on the bench to hear oral arguments. But that’s not the only difference to the court this term.
The Chief Justice announced that after more than two years of pandemic protocols the public will once again be allowed back into the courtroom to watch the justices ask questions and hear oral arguments. For the last few years, the courtroom has been closed to the public and instead there was an audio feed that you could listen to on the supreme court website. That live audio feed will still be available this term.
But like always no cameras are allowed in the courtroom so unless you’re there in person, you won’t see the justices on the bench.
But I can tell you the justices traditionally sit according to seniority with Chief Justice Roberts in the middle and the senior associate justice sitting to his right, the second senior justice to his left, and so on, alternating right and left by seniority.
That means it’ll look like this on the bench.
Chief Justice Roberts, then Justice Thomas, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagen, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett and Jackson.
For the record there are a lot of high-profile cases coming this term with cases involving LGBTQ rights, affirmative action and voting rights.
Read the announcement from the Supreme Court here
