Antonin Scalia and his weird hat made their triumphant return to Inauguration Day.
The Supreme Court justice was caught wearing what looked like it might have been a Renaissance era painter’s hat or maybe an Olympic beret. Whatever it was exactly, Antonin Scalia’s weird hat had a lot of people talking on a fashion day when the the First Lady’s Inaugural Ball ensemble was expected to be the headline.
The Atlantic Wire scoured Twitter for a number of explanations on Antonin Scalia’s weird hat. Some of the best responses:
“Is Scalia wearing one of those ROOTS berets from the 2002 Winter Olympics?”
“Inspiration for Antonin Scalia hat: bit.ly/ULEkVn “”Why is Antonin Scalia wearing a renaissance era painter’s hat? #StealingArethasThunder”
“Scalia in that hat: the mad medieval monk, fresh from illuminating a biblical manuscript and torturing heretics.””Antonin Scalia looks so cute in that Vatican Palace Guard’s hat.”
Senator Claire McCaskill noted that Scalia wore another weird hat at the last inauguration too. She tweeted: “Four years ago today I began tweeting. One of my first tweets was a comment on Scalia’s weird hat.Will he wear it again? Stay tuned.”
ABC News noted that Inauguration Day weird hats are something of a tradition:
“Top hats were for decades mainstays of presidential inaugurations, petering out with Lyndon Johnson, who did not wear one.
“If you’re looking for truly weird, once-every-four-years head gear, look no further than the justices of the Supreme Court.
“Some of the justices, such as Antonin Scalia did in 2009, don silk or wool skullcaps with peaked corners. The justices are generally seen together in public outside of the court and in their robes only once a year at the State of the Union address or the inauguration.”
If that is the truth, inauguration followers can look forward to Antonin Scalia and his weird hat again in January 2017.