Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20 of 2021. The landscape in Washington D.C. has changed in the past year. In terms of the houses of government, Biden got inaugurated only two weeks after the attack on the Capitol. The Supreme Court also recently had a new judge controversially appointed, Amy Coney Barrett just 3 months before. There are a few ways D.C. has changed since.

     The Capitol Building houses the two legislative bodies of Congress, the House of Representatives and Senate. Biden’s agenda has had some hurdles being passed by Congress due to Republicans using their filibuster power to block votes. Biden’s Democratic party has only a slight majority in Congress which has allowed bills to not pass due to the filibuster, which combined with some moderate/conservative Democrats has made Biden’s agenda harder to see the light of day. In the meanwhile, there have also been ongoing trials of the people who organized and participated in the attack on the Capitol.

     The Supreme Court has heard a lot of cases in the last term and is going to make a landmark decision regarding Roe v. Wade in the next term. Stephen Breyer is retiring at the end of the term, which means Biden will nominate a judge to replace him. Biden has nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, who if confirmed, would be the first African American woman to sit on the Supreme Court.

Gallery | 4 Photos

Yusuf Abdelsalam

Supreme Court Building: The bronze doors in front of the Supreme Court Building.