[TheCipher]

The wording in the Constitution is simple and straightforward: the President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.” There's nothing in there about the Supreme Court justices and, accordingly, there's nothing simple and straightforward about their attendance.

There is nothing in there about attendance at all, simply because there was no address before a joint session ( excluding Washingtons first.) From Jefferson up to Wilson , the state of the union was delivered in a written report to Congress. There was no address before a joint session.

[Clump]

I’ve always wished there was no public SOTU address.
I completely agree with Scalia that it’s a “childish spectacle”.
If I were Speaker he wouldn’t get an invitation to step on the floor.