Jack Gruber

Supreme Court Photo Op

The Supreme Court sat for an official portrait today in the East Conference Room at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

When a new Supreme Court justice is seated on the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and the third woman to sit on the high court,  an official portrait is arranged to be taken. It is not an annual event. The last portrait was in 2006 when Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was seated.

Myself, possibly the least experienced photographer on The Hill, along with a pool of eleven veteran DC photographers from major agencies, wire services and newspapers spent a few hours in the early morning preparing for a two minute photo opportunity with the nine justices of the Supreme Court after the official portrait was taken.

Two minutes goes by pretty quick.

The photos are not much to write home about. When I got this assignment a few days ago, I couldn’t understand why my wife was so excited about it. Yes, she is an attorney but what could be so exciting about a few minutes with a group of people  just sitting and smiling? I was looking at this as a quick, down and dirty two minute drill. She was looking at this assignment in a completely different light. She saw the history.

It finally sank in while standing in the hallway waiting as justices passed by hurrying to this early morning photo op. An engaging Judge Antonin Scalia heading back to his office remarking to us not to start without him. We all watched quietly as Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg made her way down the hall. Judge Clarence Thomas stopped to chat with Supreme Court Public Affair folks about their families.

All seemingly normal people I could imagine having as next door neighbors. Without the robes, could be any one of us. But, almost unimaginable, how much responsibility rests upon the shoulders of each of these nine individuals who go to work every day knowing they shape the very fabric of our lives.

Thinking about it now, seems like two minutes very well spent today.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Blog, On Assignment and tagged with politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.