Supreme Court Justice - Definition and Overview

In order to become a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, an individual must be nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the U.S. Senate, with at least half of that body approving in the affirmative. Generally, a justice's qualifications are judged by the President and, most visibly, by a Senate hearing. There is no definitive qualification of age or experience that is a standard to be met; instead is a much more subjective process taken by the Senate, occasionally resulting in a sometimes controversial defeat of judicial nominees.

Justices in chronological order

The following list consists of past Supreme Court Justices since 1789 placed in the order in which they took the judicial oath of office. The names of Justices who are active (as of November 28, 2004) 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.

Table Notes

Term of Office

The start of the term of office is when the Justice takes his or her oath of office.

Seats

• There are 11 seats shown: one Chief Justiceship and ten Associate Justiceships. Two of the Associate Justiceships (5 and 7) have been abolished, leaving the 9-seat Court we are familiar with.
• The seat of Chief Justice was established by the Constitution and organized by the Judiciary Act of 1789 September 24th [see 1 Stat. 73].
• The Associate Justiceships are numbered in order of their creation. If seats were established simultaneously, they are numbered in the order in which they were filled.
• Associate Justice Seats #1 – 5 were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 September 24th [see 1 Stat. 73].
• Seat #6 was established by the Seventh Circuit Act of 1807 February 24th [see 2 Stat. 420].
• Seats #7 and 8 were established by the Eighth and Ninth Circuits Act of 1837 March 3rd [see 5 Stat. 176].
• Seat #9 was established by the Tenth Circuit Act of 1863 March 3rd [see 12 Stat. 794].
• The Judicial Circuits Act of 1866 July 23rd [see 14 Stat. 209] was passed to prevent President Andrew Johnson from filling any vacancies in the Supreme Court. It provided that each Associate Justiceship would be abolished as it became vacant until the court was down to six Associate Justiceships.
  • Seat #7 was vacant at the time of passage of the Judicial Circuits Act of 1866, and hence was abolished on 1866 July 23rd. This meant that John Catron was not only the first occupant of Seat #7 but the last.
  • Seat #5 was abolished upon the death of James Moore Wayne on 1867 July 5th.
  • The Judicial Circuits Act was superseded by the Circuit Judges Act of 1869 April 10th [see 16 Stat. 44] before a third seat could be abolished.
• Seat #10 was established by the Circuit Judges Act of 1869.

Reason service terminated

^[1] There is some disagreement on how William Howard Taft exited office. According to some sources, such as the Supreme Court Historical Society (http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_timeline/images_chiefs/010.html), Mr. Taft retired. According to others, such as the Federal Judicial Center (http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2331), Mr. Taft resigned.

External links

• Decisions and biography by Justice (http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/judges.htm)
• Thorough Supreme Court site by Northwestern University (http://oyez.itcs.northwestern.edu/oyez/frontpage)
• Biographies of Supreme Court Justices at michaelariens.com (http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/list.htm)
• List of Supreme Court Justices from the Federal Judicial Center (http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetCourt?cid=0&order=c)
• The Supreme Court Historical Society (http://www.supremecourthistory.org/)
• Members of the Supreme Court from the Supreme Court of the United States (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/members.pdf)