6 things you probably didn't know about the Supreme Court class photo

Whenever a new judge enters the Supreme Court, the justices gather for a class photo.For decades, the shot has taken place in the east conference room of the court, with the justices dressed in their traditional black robes.Today, news photographers only have 120 seconds to capture the moment.Justice Clarence Thomas makes it hard to get a good shot because he jokes with the justices sitting next to him.In November, the Supreme Court justices gathered to take a new group photo after Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the court.It's a class photo steeped in decades of tradition, down to the red velvet-draped room where the picture is taken and the way the winning photo is selected.The Chief Justice is seated in the middle, with his four longest-serving colleagues on either side, while the four junior justices are relegated to the back.But there are other facts about the photo that many will find surprising, which The New York Times revealed in a report on Monday. Here are six things you might not know about the Supreme Court class photo.SEE ALSO:Supreme Court refuses to take up states' case to defund Planned ParenthoodDON'T MISS:Trump asks Supreme Court to consider transgender military ban1. The Supreme Court generally gathers to take a class photo whenever someone new enters their ranks ' but that's not a hard-and-fast rule.In 2003, the justices decided to take a new photo because they had served together nine years without any changes to the court. A photo from that session is seen above.Source: The New York Times2. Until recently, the justices would vote on which photo they would release as their official group shot.Last year, that changed slightly thanks to advances in digital photography.For the 2017 photo, as seen above, each justice was able to choose which photo they looked best in, and each of those shots was edited into the final photo.In reality, the shot is actually a composite, instead of a photo, but it's impossible to tell.Source: The New York Times3. News photographers only have 2 minutes to take a photo of the justices together.After a Supreme Court photographer takes the official picture, news photographers are let into the east conference room to take photos as well.For decades, news photographers were given just 3 minutes to take their pictures. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist thought this was too long and cut the time down to 2 minutes.During November's photo, the Supreme Court's public information officer used a stopwatch to count off the 120 seconds that photographers were allowed to take their pictures.You can hear her calling the time in this video Source: The New York TimesSee the rest of the story at Business Insider
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