Justice Scalia to deliver own speech on State of the Union night

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia probably won’t be attending Tuesday’s State of the Union address — he’s giving his own speech on the other side of town.

The famously bombastic Scalia is scheduled to speak at George Washington University at 7 p.m., two hours before President Obama is set to address the nation.

{mosads}Scalia will join NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg to discuss “his time on the Supreme Court, memorable and meaningful cases, his working life as an associate justice, and more in what’s sure to be a lively and insightful discussion.”

Scalia has at times veered into direct criticism of the Obama administration, including a shot from the Supreme Court bench last year at the president’s executive order on immigration.

But Scalia’s disdain for the State of the Union speech isn’t about partisanship — he hasn’t attended one since 1997.

Scalia has called the event a “juvenile spectacle” and said, “I resent being called upon to give it dignity.”

The justices’ attendance isn’t required, and many of them attend sporadically. In 2010, Obama ruffled conservatives’ feathers by criticizing the court’s Citizens United ruling on campaign finance.

As Obama said the decision would usher a flood of new and mostly limitless money — including from foreign sources — into campaigns, Justice Samuel Alito could be seen mouthing the words “not true.”

Chief Justice John Roberts has a perfect attendance record since joining the bench during the George W. Bush administration. This will be the first State of the Union address since he cast the deciding vote to uphold President Obama’s healthcare law, though he and the president came face-to-face for Obama’s swearing-in.