Sotomayor scheduling conflict leads to Biden’s early swearing-in
WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden will not be sworn in Sunday at noon alongside President Obama at the White House because Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had somewhere else to be.
Biden selected Sotomayor, the first Latino justice, to administer the oath. But Biden’s office said Sotomayor had a scheduling conflict Sunday and could not be at the White House at noon.
So Sotomayor will swear Biden in at 8:15 a.m. Sunday at the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will swear in Obama at noon.
The Supreme Court did not respond to a question about where Sotomayor would be at that time. But the Barnes & Noble store on Union Square in New York City says she will be talking about her new memoir, “My Beloved World,” at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday and signing copies.
Because Jan. 20 falls on a Sunday this year, the president and vice president will take the oath of office in private on that day to begin their second terms. The two will be together at noon Monday for the public oath-taking at the inaugural ceremony at the Capitol. Sotomayor is scheduled to be there.
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