Legal Beat

CQ's White House reporter, Adriel Bettelheim, who did pool duty today for the press corps covering President Obama, filed this report on Justice Sonia Sotomayor's investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court:

In the courtroom, Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. sat next to each other in two black chairs in the first row, to the right of center as one faces the bench. These chairs are normally used by court officers and retired justices during oral arguments. Recently retired Associate Justice David H. Souter could be seen in the same row.

Your pool reporter's view during the eight-minute ceremony was almost entirely obscured by maroon and gold curtains and large security personnel. Relying on glimpses and an account by the court's public information office, Sotomayor was escorted by the clerk of the court to the well of the courtroom, where she sat in the chair occupied by Chief Justice John Marshall during the early 19th century. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Solicitor General Elena Kagan were seated at counsel's tables in front of the bench. The AG moved to have Sotomayor's commission read by the clerk.