List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
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This is a list of past and present Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the U.S. Senate, with at least half of that body voting in the affirmative. Generally, a justice's qualifications are made by the President and, most visibly, by a Senate hearing. There is no qualification of age or experience that is a standard to be met; instead, there is a much more subjective process taken by the Senate, occasionally resulting in a sometimes controversial defeat of judicial nominees.
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[edit] List of Justices
The following table lists the terms of all Supreme Court justices since 1789 placed in the order in which the justices took the judicial oath of office and thereby started their term of office. Two Justices, Robert H. Harrison and Edwin Stanton, were appointed to the court but never served and therefore are not listed. Robert H. Harrison was one of the original justices appointed to the court by George Washington, but declined to serve. Edwin Stanton was appointed by Ulysses S. Grant, but died before taking office, taking the oath on his death bed.
- The names of Justices who are active (as of Justice Samuel Alito's accession to the Court on January 31, 2006) are in bold.
- Justices who received a recess appointment to the Supreme Court have an asterisk(*) following their name. All but one of these recess appointments went on to be confirmed by the Senate during the following session of Congress.
- John Rutledge and Charles Evans Hughes each resigned from the Supreme Court and were later reappointed as Chief Justice. Thus, they are listed twice below, once for each term on the Supreme Court.
[edit] Timeline
[edit] Justices appointed before 1800
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DateFormat = x.y Period = from:1789 till:1830 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1790
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width:4 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM from: 1789.36 till: 1798.64 color:justice text:"James Wilson" fontsize:10 from: 1789.8 till: 1795.49 color:Chief_Justice text:"John Jay" fontsize:10 from: 1790.09 till: 1810.70 color:justice text:"William Cushing" fontsize:10 from: 1790.09 till: 1795.82 color:justice text:"John Blair" fontsize:10 from: 1790.13 till: 1791.18 color:justice text:"John Rutledge" fontsize:10 from: 1790.36 till: 1798.80 color:justice text:"James Iredell" fontsize:10 from: 1792.60 till: 1793.04 color:justice text:"Thomas Johnson" fontsize:10 from: 1793.19 till: 1806.69 color:justice text:"William Paterson" fontsize:10 from: 1795.61 till: 1795.96 color:Chief_Justice text:"John Rutledge" fontsize:10 from: 1796.10 till: 1811.47 color:justice text:"Samuel Chase" fontsize:10 from: 1796.19 till: 1800.96 color:Chief_Justice text:"Oliver Ellsworth" fontsize:10 from: 1799.10 till: 1829.90 color:justice text:"Bushrod Washington" fontsize:10
</timeline>
[edit] Justices serving after 1800
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width:4 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM from: 01/01/1800 till: 13/09/1810 color:justice text:"William Cushing*" fontsize:10 from: 01/01/1800 till: 09/09/1806 color:justice text:"William Paterson*" fontsize:10 from: 01/01/1800 till: 19/06/1811 color:justice text:"Samuel Chase*" fontsize:10 from: 01/01/1800 till: 15/12/1800 color:Chief_Justice text:"Oliver Ellsworth*" fontsize:10 from: 01/01/1800 till: 26/11/1829 color:justice text:"Bushrod Washington*" fontsize:10 from: 21/04/1800 till: 26/01/1804 color:justice text:"Alfred Moore" fontsize:10 from: 04/02/1801 till: 06/07/1835 color:Chief_Justice text:"John Marshall" fontsize:10 from: 07/05/1804 till: 04/08/1834 color:justice text:"William Johnson" fontsize:10 from: 20/01/1807 till: 18/03/1823 color:justice text:"Henry Brockholst Livingston" fontsize:10 from: 04/05/1807 till: 07/02/1826 color:justice text:"Thomas Todd" fontsize:10 from: 23/11/1811 till: 14/01/1835 color:justice text:"Gabriel Duvall" fontsize:10 from: 03/02/1812 till: 10/09/1845 color:justice text:"Joseph Story" fontsize:10 from: 01/09/1823 till: 18/12/1843 color:justice text:"Smith Thompson" fontsize:10 from: 16/06/1826 till: 25/08/1828 color:justice text:"Robert Trimble" fontsize:10 from: 11/01/1830 till: 04/04/1861 color:justice text:"John McLean" fontsize:10 from: 18/01/1830 till: 21/04/1844 color:justice text:"Henry Baldwin" fontsize:10 from: 14/01/1835 till: 05/07/1867 color:justice text:"James Moore Wayne" fontsize:10 from: 28/03/1836 till: 12/10/1864 color:Chief_Justice text:"Roger B. Taney" fontsize:10 from: 12/05/1836 till: 25/02/1841 color:justice text:"Philip Pendleton Barbour" fontsize:10 from: 01/05/1837 till: 30/05/1865 color:justice text:"John Catron" fontsize:10 from: 09/01/1838 till: 19/07/1852 color:justice text:"John McKinley" fontsize:10 from: 10/01/1842 till: 31/05/1860 color:justice text:"Peter Vivian Daniel" fontsize:10 from: 27/02/1845 till: 28/11/1872 color:justice text:"Samuel Nelson" fontsize:10 from: 23/09/1845 till: 04/09/1851 color:justice text:"Levi Woodbury" fontsize:10 from: 10/08/1846 till: 31/01/1870 color:justice text:"Robert Cooper Grier" fontsize:10 from: 10/10/1851 till: 30/09/1857 color:justice text:"Benjamin Robbins Curtis" fontsize:10 from: 11/04/1853 till: 30/04/1861 color:justice text:"John Archibald Campbell" fontsize:10 from: 21/01/1858 till: 25/07/1881 color:justice text:"Nathan Clifford" fontsize:10 from: 27/01/1862 till: 24/01/1881 color:justice text:"Noah Haynes Swayne" fontsize:10 from: 21/07/1862 till: 13/10/1890 color:justice text:"Samuel Freeman Miller" fontsize:10 from: 10/12/1862 till: 04/03/1877 color:justice text:"David Davis" fontsize:10 from: 20/05/1863 till: 01/12/1897 color:justice text:"Stephen Johnson Field" fontsize:10 from: 15/12/1864 till: 07/05/1873 color:Chief_Justice text:"Salmon P. Chase" fontsize:10 from: 14/03/1870 till: 14/12/1880 color:justice text:"William Strong" fontsize:10 from: 23/03/1870 till: 22/01/1892 color:justice text:"Joseph Philo Bradley" fontsize:10 from: 09/01/1873 till: 27/01/1882 color:justice text:"Ward Hunt" fontsize:10 from: 04/03/1874 till: 23/03/1888 color:Chief_Justice text:"Morrison Waite" fontsize:10 from: 10/12/1877 till: 14/10/1911 color:justice text:"John Marshall Harlan" fontsize:10 from: 05/01/1881 till: 14/05/1887 color:justice text:"William Burnham Woods" fontsize:10 from: 17/05/1881 till: 22/03/1889 color:justice text:"Thomas Stanley Matthews" fontsize:10 from: 09/01/1882 till: 15/09/1902 color:justice text:"Horace Gray" fontsize:10 from: 03/04/1882 till: 07/07/1893 color:justice text:"Samuel Blatchford" fontsize:10 from: 18/01/1888 till: 23/01/1893 color:justice text:"Lucius Q. C. Lamar" fontsize:10 from: 08/10/1888 till: 07/04/1910 color:Chief_Justice text:"Melville Fuller" fontsize:10 from: 06/01/1890 till: 28/03/1910 color:justice text:"David Josiah Brewer" fontsize:10 from: 05/01/1891 till: 28/05/1906 color:justice text:"Henry Billings Brown" fontsize:10 from: 10/10/1892 till: 23/02/1903 color:justice text:"George Shiras, Jr." fontsize:10 from: 04/03/1893 till: 08/08/1895 color:justice text:"Howell Edmunds Jackson" fontsize:10 from: 12/03/1894 till: 19/12/1910 color:justice text:"Edward Douglass White" fontsize: 10 from: 12/03/1894 till: 19/12/1910 color:justice from:19/12/1910 till: 19/05/1921 color: Chief_Justice text:"Edward Douglass White" fontsize:10 from: 06/01/1896 till: 24/10/1909 color:justice text:"Rufus Wheeler Peckham" fontsize:10 from: 26/01/1898 till: 01/05/1925 color:justice text:"Joseph McKenna" fontsize:10 from: 12/08/1902 till: 01/12/1932 color:justice text:"Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr." fontsize:10 from: 03/02/1903 till: 13/11/1922 color:justice text:"William R. Day" fontsize:10 from: 17/12/1906 till: 20/11/1910 color:justice text:"William Henry Moody" fontsize:10 from: 01/03/1910 till: 07/12/1914 color:justice text:"Horace Harmon Lurton" fontsize:10 from: 10/10/1910 till: 06/10/1916 color:justice text:"Charles Evans Hughes" fontsize:10 from: 01/03/1911 till: 06/02/1937 color:justice text:"Willis Van Devanter" fontsize:10 from: 01/03/1911 till: 01/02/1916 color:justice text:"Joseph Rucker Lamar" fontsize:10 from: 18/03/1912 till: 31/12/1922 color:justice text:"Mahlon Pitney" fontsize:10 from: 10/12/1914 till: 31/01/1941 color:justice text:"James Clark McReynolds" fontsize:10 from: 06/05/1916 till: 13/02/1939 color:justice text:"Louis Brandeis" fontsize:10 from: 10/09/1916 till: 18/09/1922 color:justice text:"John Hessin Clarke" fontsize:10 from: 07/11/1921 till: 02/03/1930 color:Chief_Justice text:"William Howard Taft" fontsize:10 from: 10/02/1922 till: 17/01/1938 color:justice text:"George Sutherland" fontsize:10 from: 01/02/1923 till: 16/11/1939 color:justice text:"Pierce Butler" fontsize:10 from: 19/02/1923 till: 03/08/1930 color:justice text:"Edward Terry Sanford" fontsize:10 from: 03/02/1925 till: 02/07/1941 color:justice text:"Harlan Fiske Stone" fontsize:10 from: 03/02/1925 till: 02/07/1941 color:justice from: 03/07/1941 till: 22/04/1946 color: Chief_Justice text:"Harlan Fiske Stone" fontsize:10 from: 24/02/1930 till: 30/06/1941 color:Chief_Justice text:"Charles Evans Hughes" fontsize:10 from: 06/02/1930 till: 31/07/1945 color:justice text:"Owen Josephus Roberts" fontsize:10 from: 14/03/1932 till: 07/09/1938 color:justice text:"Benjamin N. Cardozo" fontsize:10 from: 19/08/1937 till: 17/09/1971 color:justice text:"Hugo Black" fontsize:10 from: 31/01/1938 till: 25/02/1957 color:justice text:"Stanley Forman Reed" fontsize:10 from: 30/01/1939 till: 28/08/1962 color:justice text:"Felix Frankfurter" fontsize:10 from: 17/04/1939 till: 11/12/1975 color:justice text:"William O. Douglas" fontsize:10 from: 02/05/1940 till: 19/07/1949 color:justice text:"Frank Murphy" fontsize:10 from: 07/08/1941 till: 10/03/1942 color:justice text:"James F. Byrnes" fontsize:10 from: 07/11/1941 till: 10/09/1954 color:justice text:"Robert H. Jackson" fontsize:10 from: 15/02/1943 till: 09/10/1949 color:justice text:"Wiley Blount Rutledge" fontsize:10 from: 10/01/1945 till: 13/10/1958 color:justice text:"Harold Hitz Burton" fontsize:10 from: 24/06/1946 till: 09/08/1953 color:Chief_Justice text:"Fred M. Vinson" fontsize:10 from: 24/08/1949 till: 06/12/1967 color:justice text:"Tom C. Clark" fontsize:10 from: 10/12/1949 till: 15/10/1956 color:justice text:"Sherman Minton" fontsize:10 from: 10/05/1953 till: 23/06/1969 color:Chief_Justice text:"Earl Warren" fontsize:10 from: 28/03/1955 till: 23/09/1971 color:justice text:"John Marshall Harlan II" fontsize:10 from: 16/10/1956 till: 20/07/1990 color:justice text:"William J. Brennan" fontsize:10 from: 25/03/1957 till: 31/03/1962 color:justice text:"Charles Evans Whittaker" fontsize:10 from: 14/10/1958 till: 07/03/1981 color:justice text:"Potter Stewart" fontsize:10 from: 16/04/1962 till: 28/06/1993 color:justice text:"Byron White" fontsize:10 from: 10/01/1962 till: 25/07/1965 color:justice text:"Arthur Goldberg" fontsize:10 from: 10/04/1965 till: 14/05/1969 color:justice text:"Abe Fortas" fontsize:10 from: 10/02/1967 till: 10/01/1991 color:justice text:"Thurgood Marshall" fontsize:10 from: 23/06/1969 till: 26/09/1986 color:Chief_Justice text:"Warren E. Burger" fontsize:10 from: 06/09/1970 till: 08/03/1994 color:justice text:"Harry Blackmun" fontsize:10 from: 01/07/1972 till: 25/06/1987 color:justice text:"Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr." fontsize:10 from: 01/07/1972 till: 26/09/1986 color:justice text:"William Rehnquist" fontsize:10 from: 01/07/1972 till: 26/09/1986 color:justice from:26/09/1986 till:03/09/2005 color:Chief_Justice text:"William Rehnquist" fontsize:10 from: 19/12/1975 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"John Paul Stevens" fontsize:10 from: 25/09/1981 till: 31/01/2006 color:justice text:"Sandra Day O'Connor" fontsize:10 from: 26/09/1986 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"Antonin Scalia" fontsize:10 from: 18/02/1988 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"Anthony Kennedy" fontsize:10 from: 10/09/1990 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"David Souter" fontsize:10 from: 23/10/1991 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"Clarence Thomas" fontsize:10 from: 08/10/1993 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"Ruth Bader Ginsburg" fontsize:10 from: 08/03/1994 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"Stephen Breyer" fontsize:10 from: 29/09/2005 till: 09/03/2008 color:Chief_Justice text:"John Roberts" fontsize:10 from: 31/01/2006 till: 09/03/2008 color:justice text:"Samuel Alito" fontsize:10
</timeline>
*: These justices were appointed before 1800. Their pre-1800 term portions are shown in the previous timeline.
Note: Because of limitations of the code, the timeline cannot be easily replicated into one timeline.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c This individual was elevated from Associate Justice to Chief Justice. Unlike the inferior courts, the Chief Justice is separately nominated and subject to a separate confirmation process, regardless of whether or not (s)he is already an Associate Justice.
- ^ Under 36 Stat. 1152, McKenna was Acting Chief Justice from White's death on May 19, 1921 until Taft took office on July 11, 1921.
- ^ Under 36 Stat. 1152, Holmes was Acting Chief Justice from Taft's departure on February 3, 1930 until Hughes took office on February 24, 1930.
- ^ There is some disagreement on how Moody exited office. According to the Federal Judicial Center, Moody resigned. According to the Supreme Court Historical Society, Moody retired. It turns out that the confusion comes from the fact that Moody was allowed to retire by special act of Congress in 1910 due to prolonged ill health. (Moody did not meet the minimum age and service requirements to retire without this waiver.)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Deaths in senior status seem to cause confusion. There are two types of retirement: in the first type, the justice resigns his appointment in return for a pension, and the "Reason Appointment Terminated" is marked as "retirement". In the second type of retirement, called senior status, the justice's appointment does not end. Instead, the justice accepts a reduced workload on an inferior court. For instance, Stanley F. Reed was frequently assigned to the Court of Claims when he was in senior status. As of 2006, every justice except Charles Evans Whittaker who has assumed senior status has died in it; in that case, the judge will have the "Reason Appointment Terminated" as "death", even though they retired from the court before they died.
- ^ There is some disagreement on how William Howard Taft exited office. According to some sources, such as the Supreme Court Historical Society, Taft retired. According to others, such as the Federal Judicial Center, Taft resigned.
- ^ Under 36 Stat. 1152, Stone was Acting Chief Justice from Hughes's retirement on June 30, 1941 until Stone took the oath of office as Chief Justice three days later.
- ^ Under 36 Stat. 1152, Black was Acting Chief Justice from Stone's death on April 22, 1946 until Vinson took office on June 24, 1946.
- ^ Under 62 Stat. 869, Black was Acting Chief Justice from Vinson's death on September 8, 1953 until Warren took office on October 5, 1953. The Supreme Court was not in session during this brief period.
- ^ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedsenior_retirement - ^ Under , Stevens was Acting Chief Justice from Rehnquist's death on September 3, 2005 until Roberts took office on September 29, 2005. The Supreme Court was not in session during this brief period.
[edit] See also
- List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition
- List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by education
- List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by time in office
[edit] References
- Judges of the United States Courts. Official website of the Federal Judicial Center. Retrieved on November 21, 2004.
- source for term of senior service, reason service terminated, and seat information
- Members of the Supreme Court from the Supreme Court of the United States (PDF). Official website of the Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved on May 29, 2005.
- source for state, appointer, and term of active service
- Title 28, Section 3. Vacancy in office of Chief Justice; disability. United States Code. Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (2005-09-29). Retrieved on May 8, 2006.
- source for laws about the Acting Chief Justice
[edit] External links
- Decisions and biography by Justice
- Thorough Supreme Court site by Northwestern University
- Biographies of Supreme Court Justices at michaelariens.com
- The Supreme Court Historical Society
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