What Went Down During Joe Biden’s Inauguration

As Biden begins his inaugural address, he notes that “the will of the people has been heard” and situates the election in the struggle that ensued afterward. These addresses are sometimes more ceremonial and avoid references to elections or mandates. But not always — Clinton talked about the 1992 election and said the electorate had “raised their voices in an unmistakable chorus.”

In his inaugural address, Biden begins by saying how precious and fragile democracy is, referencing the violent insurrection at the Capitol two weeks ago, saying that in this hour, democracy has prevailed.

Chief Justice Roberts, who just administered the oath of office to Biden, has got to be pretty relieved about this moment. He took a couple of very unpopular stands against Trump in narrow Supreme Court rulings and got a lot of flak as a result. The Supreme Court isn’t likely to recede into the background under Biden, of course — we’re likely to see some contentious cases involving Biden executive orders and regulations, for one thing. But with a 6-3 conservative majority on the court, Roberts likely won’t be personally in the spotlight in the same way he was under Trump.