Less remarked upon was the attire, much less the attendance, of six especially notable guests: Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, each of whom was accompanied by their respective spouses. The Supreme Court contingent represented nearly 10% of the roughly 130 guests, which also included several Fox News journalists and executives, multiple Cabinet secretaries, some tech company titans and a handful of senior White House aides.

And while all six justices nominated by Republican presidents (three by Trump himself) attended the dinner, none of the three justices nominated by Democratic presidents were there, invited or not. ....

The presence of the entire conservative wing of the court on Tuesday night — just hours before it released a 6-3 decision significantly weakening the Voting Rights Act, and on the eve of oral argument about the legality of the administration ending temporary protected status for Syrian and Haitian immigrants — struck some court observers as unusual.

Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown Law professor and author of the Supreme Court-focused Substack “One First,” told MS NOW that historically, it is not uncommon for justices to attend state functions, even in the middle of high-profile cases involving the president.

“The problem here,” Vladeck explained, “is the symbolism, that these six justices — and only these six — were there. It does nothing to disabuse the appearance that the court is playing partisan political favorites, an impression this court should be invested in avoiding.”