Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the oldest and longest-serving justice on the Court, will swear in Joseph Biden as Vice-President on Jan. 20, a source close to the inaugural planners has just confirmed to Legal Times. Stevens, 88, was named to the Court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. It is rare for a vice president to be sworn in by an associate justice appointed by a president of the opposite party, so this choice can be seen as a bipartisan gesture -- though Stevens is usually regarded as one of the most liberal justices on the Court.
By long tradition the president is sworn in by the chief justice, unless an emergency situation arises -- the last one being the hasty swearing-in of Lyndon Johnson by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Hughes on Air Force One after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Barack Obama will be the first president sworn in by a chief justice -- John Roberts Jr. -- whose nomination he opposed.
Read on from Legal Times.
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