WASHINGTON — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history-making event in which the first Black, South Asian and female vice president will take her oath of office from the first Latina justice.
Harris chose Sotomayor for the task, according to a person familiar with the decision. She’ll also use two Bibles for the swearing-in, one of which belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.
ABC News first reported the latest details of Harris’ inauguration plans.
Harris has expressed admiration for both Sotomayor and Marshall. She and Sotomayor share experience as prosecutors, and she once called Marshall — like Harris, an alumnus of Howard University — one of her “greatest heroes.”
The vice president-elect said in a video posted to Twitter that she viewed Marshall as “one of the main reasons I wanted to be a lawyer,” calling him “a fighter” in the courtroom.
And this will be the second time Sotomayor takes part in an inauguration. She swore in President-elect Joe Biden as vice president in 2013.
Biden and Harris will be sworn in on Inauguration Day, Wednesday, Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., with Biden's swearing in expected to happen around noon Eastern time.
The ceremony is expected to be held at the Western front of the Capitol building, which is the side that faces the National Mall and the Washington Monument.
As of one week out, Washington is expecting sunny weather and temperatures in the 40s that day.
Biden's swearing in will happen in-person, but expect the audience to be limited. His inaugural committee is urging Americans not to attend amid the coronavirus pandemic.
By the busload and planeload, National Guard troops are pouring into the nation’s capital as governors answer U.S. defense officials' calls for more troops to safeguard Washington over possible violent protests since the Capitol riot Jan. 6. More than 25,000 Guard troops are due in Washington by early next week to help lock down much of the city in the days before the inauguration.
