The Supreme Court justices are seen during their most recent sitting. Clockwise from top left: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer.
- Whenever a new judge enters the Supreme Court, the justices gather for a class photo.
- For decades, the shot has taken place in the east conference room of the court, with the justices dressed in their traditional black robes.
- Today, news photographers only have 120 seconds to capture the moment.
- Justice Clarence Thomas makes it hard to get a good shot because he jokes with the justices sitting next to him.
In November, the Supreme Court justices gathered to take a new group photo after Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the court.
It's a class photo steeped in decades of tradition, down to the red velvet-draped room where the picture is taken and the way the winning photo is selected.
The Chief Justice is seated in the middle, with his four longest-serving colleagues on either side, while the four junior justices are relegated to the back.
But there are other facts about the photo that many will find surprising, which The New York Times revealed in a report on Monday. Here are six things you might not know about the Supreme Court class photo.