Sleep tight, Justice T, and don't let the bedbugs bite!

Can't you just feel the excitement in the air? Oh, wait . . .

by Ken

Thanks to our eagle-eyed colleague John Aravosis at AMERICAblog for catching this magic moment from President Obama's inauguration. We all recall how, despite the arctic chill, the excitement in the crowd kept everyone at fever pitch. The sense of history was palpable for . . . er, for this . . . um, for this historic . . . oh, for goodness' sake, would somebody wake Justice Thomas up?

In fairness to Justice T, those familiar with his, er, customary demeanor during oral arguments before the Supreme Court say that while yes, it does often appear that he dozes off during the proceedings, there are occasional indications that at least some of those times he isn't so much sleeping as expressing his general contempt for the proceedings. Actually, what's interesting is how often you hear some version of this from lawyers who have argued cases before him -- or tried to.

Note: Although the Secret Service probably wouldn't like it to be widely known, the above seating plan is actually used for all Supreme Court outings to events that involve reserved-seat ticketing, like Washington Nationals' baseball and Wizards' basketball games. Chief Justice Roberts, in particular, likes to be well removed from the aisle so that somebody else usually winds up paying while he fumbles for his wallet when the hot-dog and beer vendors come around.

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