Supreme Court faces bomb threat during Biden's inauguration

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Supreme Court faces bomb threat during Biden's inauguration
An American flag waves in front of the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington.Patrick Semansky/AP
  • The Supreme Court received a bomb threat on Wednesday as President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony was underway.
  • "The Court received a bomb threat, the building and grounds were checked out, and the building is not being evacuated," a Supreme Court spokesperson said.
  • There's increased security in Washington, DC, for Biden's inauguration following the Capitol riot on January 6.
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The Supreme Court faced a bomb threat on Wednesday as congressional lawmakers and prominent political figures gathered in Washington, DC, for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

The building was closed to the public on Wednesday due to COVID-19, and was not evacuated, CNN reported, despite initial reports suggesting otherwise.

"The Court received a bomb threat, the building and grounds were checked out, and the building is not being evacuated," a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said in a statement.

There's ramped up security in Washington for Biden's inauguration following the Capitol siege on January 6. Approximately 25,000 National Guard troops were deployed in the nation's capital on Wednesday, five times the number of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.

Most of the Supreme Court justices were in attendance at the inauguration on Wednesday, with Chief Justice John Roberts set to swear Biden in as the 46th President of the United States.

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Sonia Sotomayor, America's first Latina Supreme Court justice, was poised to administer the vice presidential oath to Kamala Harris, the nation's first Black, first South Asian, and first woman vice president.

All three of the Supreme Court justices confirmed in the Trump era - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett - were present at Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump, who provoked the violent insurrection at the US Capitol two weeks before inauguration, did not attend. He left town for Florida earlier in the day.

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