Supreme Court Justices did not attend the State of the Union speech, in mass.

I don't know if you noticed,  but there were only four High Court justices in the audience,  tonight.  I don't remember when so few attended a presidential speech of this nature. Associate Justices Anthony  Kennedy joined  Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg,  Elena Kagan and Chief Justice John Roberts was also at the speech.  

Not in attendance were Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who Obama appointed to the court, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas,  John Paul Stevens and  Antonin Scalia. 

What does it mean to see 5 members of the High Court skip the single most important presidential speech of the year (typically) ?    Honestly,  I don't know but it is a surprising development,  to be sure.  Very unusual.

Something else that is curious to me is the fact that Justice Ginsburg has announced that she has no intentions of retiring from the court before the November elections.  She is 78 and,  perhaps,  the most liberal of the Associates.  One would think that she would see the advantage of retiring during the term of a liberal president.