Editing State of the Union (section)

==Formality==
The practice arises from a duty of the president under the [[State of the Union Clause]] of the [[U.S. Constitution]]:<ref name="KesavanSidak">{{cite journal|first1=Vasan |last1=Kesavan |first2=J. |last2=Gregory Sidak|title=The Legislator-In-Chief|journal=[[William & Mary Law School|William and Mary Law Review]]|date=October 2002|volume=44|issue=1|access-date=June 28, 2012|url=http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1345&context=wmlr|archive-date=September 9, 2024|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240909104014/https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1345&context=wmlr|at=I. The State Of The Union Clause}}</ref>
{{blockquote|He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.|[[Article Two of the United States Constitution|Article II]], Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution}}

Though the language of the clause is not specific, since the 1930s, the president has made this report annually in late January or early February. Between 1934 and 2024 the date has been as early as January 3,<ref name="CRS Tradition Function">{{cite book |title=The President's State of the Union Address: Tradition, Function, and Policy Implications |publisher=[[Congressional Research Service]] |date=January 16, 2014 |page=2 |access-date=January 24, 2014 |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40132.pdf |archive-date=September 9, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240909104431/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40132.pdf |first=Colleen |last=J. Shagan}}</ref> and as late as March 7.

While not required to deliver a speech, every president since [[Woodrow Wilson]], with the notable exception of [[Herbert Hoover]],<ref name="AppSou" /> has made at least one State of the Union report as a speech delivered before a joint session of Congress. Before then, most presidents delivered the State of the Union as a written report.<ref name="CRS Tradition Function" />

Since Franklin Roosevelt, the State of the Union is given typically each January before a [[joint session of the United States Congress]] and is held in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] chamber of the [[United States Capitol]]. Newly [[United States presidential inauguration|inaugurated]] presidents generally deliver an address to Congress in February of the first year of their term, but this speech is not officially considered to be a "State of the Union".<ref name="CRS Tradition Function" />

What began as a communication between president and Congress has become in effect a communication between the president and the people of the United States. Since the advent of radio, and then television, the speech has been broadcast live in all United States time zones on most networks, preempting scheduled programming. Since at least the 1960s, in order to reach the largest audience, the speech has typically been given at 9 p.m. ([[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Time]], [[UTC-5]]).<ref>{{cite news |title=State of the Union: Five facts about the famous US speech |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47132198 |archive-date=September 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240909105010/https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47132198 |url-status=live |work=[[CBBC Newsround|Newsround]] |access-date=January 5, 2022 |date=February 5, 2020}}</ref>