I wrote the other day about the kerfuffle over Chief Justice Roberts's stumbling during his recitation of the oath of office during last week's presidential inauguration. The matter is still pinballing around the legal media, and will undoubtedly spawn four score and seven law review articles.

The day after the ceremony, just before President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts re-did the oath just to be on the safe side, Vice-President Biden made a crack about his memory not being as good as Roberts's. For the record, it didn't bother me that Biden made a joke about the incident; it bothered me that the joke wasn't funny. But enough people were apparently miffed enough about it that Biden called up the Chief Justice and apologized.

But it appears that one person who thought it was all worth kidding about was Chief Justice Roberts himself, according to this news item a lawyer friend sent me. The story is about the installation of a new Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The Chief Justice holds the largely ceremonial position of Chancellor of the Smithsonian. (Amusingly, the only other ex officio member of the Institution's Board is the Vice-President.)

The Chief performed the official installation of the new Secretary, presenting him with a badge of office and a special key. (Why do I have the feeling that this key will figure in National Treasure 3?) The process didn't include an oath, which caused Chief Justice Roberts to remark, "I don't know who was responsible for that decision, but I like 'em."

This press packet from the Smithsonian about the ceremony includes more information and several nice pictures, including the one with this post.

So now that Biden has apologized for his lame joke, and Roberts has made a good joke, I hope we can forget about any supposed hard feelings. In fact, I think it would be great if the Obamas invited the Robertses over to the White House this weekend to watch the Super Bowl. They would both be cheering for the Steelers, I think, they could share Harvard Law stories, and the Roberts children are about the same age as the Obama girls. It would be good for America!

In January 1961, some people met up at a lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The blacks and whites did not know each other. The blacks sat down and requested service, and got thirty days in jail for their trouble. The whites showed up to hurl taunts, insults, eggs, and fists.

Forty-eight years later, a black man is inaugurated as President of the United States, and the local paper runs a story about the confrontation at the lunch counter all those years ago. Two of the white men separately call up the paper and say they were there, and are ashamed, and think it's time to apologize. So the paper got some of these folks back together, and here's what happened.