Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court.

I'm Amy Swearer. And I'm John Carlo Conoparo.

And welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

Welcome to another episode of SCOTUS 101.

Amy, we have nine.

Just that was more happy scream.

Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, to whom we send our sincerest congratulations, was confirmed by the Senate

Monday night. And later that night, at an outdoor socially distanced White House ceremony,

Justice Clarence Thomas administered the constitutional oath of office.

Shout out to our listener, Daniel Nord, who emailed us the question we were all thinking anyway, which was,

why did Justice Thomas do the swearing in at the White House instead of the chief? Who decides on

that? How did this happen? What does it mean? Well, the answer is slightly more involved than you

might think. Incoming Supremes take two oaths of office,

both of which have their own traditions. The first oath is the constitutional oath that goes

something like, I will support and defend the Constitution, et cetera. You've probably heard this

one in other contexts because it's the one that all government

employees take. So this was the oath that Justice Thomas administered to now Justice Barrett on

Monday night. There's another oath called the judicial oath, which you might not have heard,

and it goes, I, very important person, do solemnly swear that I will administer justice with respect to persons

and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially

discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as under the Constitution and the laws of

the United States. So help me God. That is the judicial oath and was separately administered

...