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An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869. [1]
Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States grants plenary power to the president to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the Senate, appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution effectively grants life tenure to associate justices, and all other federal judges, which ends only when a justice dies, retires, resigns, or is impeached and convicted. [2]
Each Supreme Court justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it, and the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice; however, the chief justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. Furthermore, the chief justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion; otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. The chief justice also has certain administrative responsibilities that the other justices do not and is paid slightly more ($298,500 per year as of 2023, compared to $285,400 per year for an associate justice). [3]
Associate justices have seniority in order of the date their respective commissions bear, although the chief justice is always considered to be the most senior justice. If two justices are commissioned on the same day, the elder is designated the senior justice of the two. Currently, the senior associate justice is Clarence Thomas. By tradition, when the justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court, the justices state their views in order of seniority. The senior associate justice is also tasked with carrying out the chief justice's duties when he is unable to, or if that office is vacant.
There are currently eight associate justices on the Supreme Court. The justices, ordered by seniority, are:
An associate justice who leaves the Supreme Court after attaining the age and meeting the service requirements prescribed by federal statute (28 U.S.C. § 371) may retire rather than resign. After retirement, they keep their title, and by custom may also keep a set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, and employ law clerks. The names of retired associate justices continue to appear alongside those of the active justices in the bound volumes of Supreme Court decisions. Federal statute (28 U.S.C. § 294) provides that retired Supreme Court justices may serve—if designated and assigned by the chief justice—on panels of the U.S. courts of appeals, or on the U.S. district courts. Retired justices are not, however, authorized to take part in the consideration or decision of any cases before the Supreme Court (unlike other retired federal judges who may be permitted to do so in their former courts); neither are they known or designated as a "senior judge". When, after his retirement, William O. Douglas attempted to take a more active role than was customary, maintaining that it was his prerogative to do so because of his senior status, he was rebuffed by Chief Justice Warren Burger and admonished by the whole Court. [12]
There are currently three living retired associate justices: David Souter, retired June 29, 2009; Anthony Kennedy, retired July 31, 2018; and Stephen Breyer, retired June 30, 2022. Souter has served on panels of the First Circuit Courts of Appeals following his retirement; Kennedy and Breyer have not performed any judicial duties since retiring.
Since the Supreme Court was established in 1789, the following 104 persons have served as an associate justice: [13] [14]
Associate justice | Seat | Replacing | Date confirmed (Vote) | Tenure [lower-alpha 1] | Appointed by | Prior position [lower-alpha 2] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | John Rutledge | 1st | (new seat) | September 26, 1789 (Acclamation) | February 15, 1790 – March 4, 1791 (Resigned) [lower-alpha 3] | George Washington | 31st governor of South Carolina (1779–1782) | |
2 | William Cushing [lower-alpha 4] | 2nd | (new seat) | September 26, 1789 (Acclamation) | February 2, 1790 – September 13, 1810 (Died) | Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court (1777–1789) | ||
3 | James Wilson | 3rd | (new seat) | September 26, 1789 (Acclamation) | October 5, 1789 – August 21, 1798 (Died) | Delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787) | ||
4 | John Blair | 4th | (new seat) | September 26, 1789 (Acclamation) | February 2, 1790 – October 25, 1795 (Resigned) | Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1766–1770) | ||
5 | James Iredell | 5th | (new seat) | February 10, 1790 (Acclamation) | May 12, 1790 – October 20, 1799 (Died) | 2nd attorney general of North Carolina (1779–1782) | ||
6 | Thomas Johnson | 1st | J. Rutledge | November 7, 1791 (Acclamation) | September 19, 1791 [lower-alpha 5] – January 16, 1793 (Resigned) | 1st governor of Maryland (1777–1779) | ||
7 | William Paterson | T. Johnson | March 4, 1793 (Acclamation) | March 11, 1793 – September 8, 1806 (Died) | 2nd governor of New Jersey (1790–1793) | |||
8 | Samuel Chase [lower-alpha 6] | 4th | Blair | January 27, 1796 (Acclamation) | February 4, 1796 – June 19, 1811 (Died) | Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court (1791–1796) | ||
9 | Bushrod Washington | 3rd | Wilson | December 20, 1798 (Acclamation) | November 9, 1798 [lower-alpha 5] – November 26, 1829 (Died) | John Adams | Delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788) | |
10 | Alfred Moore | 5th | Iredell | December 9, 1799 (Acclamation) | April 21, 1800 – January 26, 1804 (Resigned) | 3rd attorney general of North Carolina (1782–1791) | ||
11 | William Johnson | 5th | Moore | March 24, 1804 (Acclamation) | May 7, 1804 – August 4, 1834 (Died) | Thomas Jefferson | Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1798–1800) | |
12 | Henry Brockholst Livingston | 1st | Paterson | December 17, 1806 (Acclamation) | January 20, 1807 [lower-alpha 5] – March 18, 1823 (Died) | Justice of the New York Supreme Court (1802–1807) | ||
13 | Thomas Todd | 6th | (new seat) | March 2, 1807 (Acclamation) | March 4, 1807 – February 7, 1826 (Died) | Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals (1806–1807) | ||
14 | Gabriel Duvall | 4th | Chase | November 18, 1811 (Acclamation) | November 23, 1811 – January 12, 1835 (Resigned) | James Madison | U.S. representative for Maryland's 2nd district (1794–1796) | |
15 | Joseph Story | 2nd | Cushing | November 18, 1811 (Acclamation) | February 3, 1812 – September 10, 1845 (Died) | U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 2nd district (1808–1809) | ||
16 | Smith Thompson | 1st | Livingston | December 9, 1823 (Acclamation) | September 1, 1823 [lower-alpha 5] – December 18, 1843 (Died) | James Monroe | 6th United States secretary of the Navy (1819–1823) | |
17 | Robert Trimble | 6th | Todd | May 9, 1826 (25–5) | June 16, 1826 – August 25, 1828 (Died) | John Quincy Adams | Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky (1817–1826) | |
18 | John McLean | Trimble | March 7, 1829 (Acclamation) | March 12, 1829 – April 4, 1861 (Died) | Andrew Jackson | 6th United States postmaster general (1823–1829) | ||
19 | Henry Baldwin | 3rd | Washington | January 6, 1830 (41–2) | January 18, 1830 – April 21, 1844 (Died) | U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 14th district (1817–1822) | ||
20 | James Moore Wayne | 5th | W. Johnson | January 9, 1835 (Acclamation) | January 14, 1835 – July 5, 1867 (Died)(Seat abolished) | U.S. representative for Georgia's at-large district (1829–1835) | ||
21 | Philip P. Barbour | 4th | Duvall | March 15, 1836 (30–11) | May 12, 1836 – February 25, 1841 (Died) | Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (1830–1836) | ||
22 | John Catron | 7th | (new seat) | March 8, 1837 (28–15) | May 1, 1837 – May 30, 1865 (Died)(Seat abolished) | Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals (1824–1834) | ||
23 | John McKinley | 8th | (new seat) | September 25, 1837 (Acclamation) | January 9, 1838 [lower-alpha 5] – July 19, 1852 (Died) | Martin Van Buren | United States senator from Alabama (1826–1831, 1837) | |
24 | Peter Vivian Daniel | 4th | Barbour | March 2, 1841 (25–5) | January 10, 1842 – May 31, 1860 (Died) | Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (1836–1841) | ||
25 | Samuel Nelson | 1st | Thompson | February 14, 1845 (Acclamation) | February 27, 1845 – November 28, 1872 (Retired) | John Tyler | Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court (1831–1845) | |
26 | Levi Woodbury | 2nd | Story | January 31, 1846 (Acclamation) | September 23, 1845 [lower-alpha 5] – September 4, 1851 (Died) | James K. Polk | 13th United States secretary of the treasury (1834–1841) | |
27 | Robert Cooper Grier | 3rd | Baldwin | August 4, 1846 (Acclamation) | August 10, 1846 – January 31, 1870 (Retired) | Judge for the Pennsylvania state District Court for Allegheny County (1833–1846) | ||
28 | Benjamin Robbins Curtis | 2nd | Woodbury | December 20, 1851 (Acclamation) | October 10, 1851 [lower-alpha 5] – September 30, 1857 (Resigned) | Millard Fillmore | Massachusetts state representative | |
29 | John Archibald Campbell | 8th | McKinley | March 22, 1853 (Acclamation) | April 11, 1853 – April 30, 1861 (Resigned) | Franklin Pierce | Alabama state representative | |
30 | Nathan Clifford | 2nd | Curtis | January 12, 1858 (26–23) | January 21, 1858 – July 25, 1881 (Died) | James Buchanan | 19th United States attorney general (1846–1848) | |
31 | Noah Haynes Swayne | 6th | McLean | January 24, 1862 (38–1) | January 27, 1862 – January 24, 1881 (Retired) | Abraham Lincoln | U.S. attorney for the District of Ohio (1830–1834) | |
32 | Samuel Freeman Miller | 4th | Daniel | July 16, 1862 (Acclamation) | July 21, 1862 – October 13, 1890 (Died) | Lawyer, Private practice | ||
33 | David Davis | 8th | Campbell | December 8, 1862 (Acclamation) | December 10, 1862 [lower-alpha 5] – March 3, 1877 (Resigned) | Judge of the Illinois 3rd Circuit Court (1848–1862) | ||
34 | Stephen Johnson Field | 9th | (new seat) | March 10, 1863 (Acclamation) | May 20, 1863 – December 1, 1897 (Retired) | 5th chief justice of California (1859–1863) | ||
35 | William Strong | 3rd | Grier | February 18, 1870 (Acclamation) | March 14, 1870 – December 14, 1880 (Retired) | Ulysses S. Grant | U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 9th district (1847–1851) | |
36 | Joseph P. Bradley | 10th | (new seat) | March 21, 1870 (46–9) | March 23, 1870 – January 22, 1892 (Died) | Lawyer, Private practice | ||
37 | Ward Hunt | 1st | Nelson | December 11, 1872 (Acclamation) | January 9, 1873 – January 27, 1882 (Retired) | Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1868–1872) | ||
38 | John Marshall Harlan | 8th | Davis | December 10, 1877 (Acclamation) | November 29, 1877 – October 14, 1911 (Died) | Rutherford B. Hayes | 14th attorney general of Kentucky (1863–1867) | |
39 | William Burnham Woods | 3rd | Strong | December 21, 1880 (39–8) | January 5, 1881 – May 14, 1887 (Died) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1869–1880) | ||
40 | Stanley Matthews | 6th | Swayne | May 12, 1881 (24–23) | May 17, 1881 – March 22, 1889 (Died) | James A. Garfield | United States senator from Ohio (1877–1879) | |
41 | Horace Gray | 2nd | Clifford | December 20, 1881 (51–5) | January 9, 1882 – September 15, 1902 (Died) | Chester A. Arthur | Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1873–1881) | |
42 | Samuel Blatchford | 1st | Hunt | March 22, 1882 (Acclamation) | April 3, 1882 – July 7, 1893 (Died) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1878–1882) | ||
43 | Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II | 3rd | Woods | January 16, 1888 (32–28) | January 18, 1888 – January 23, 1893 (Died) | Grover Cleveland | 16th United States secretary of the interior (1885–1888) | |
44 | David Josiah Brewer | 6th | Matthews | December 18, 1889 (53–11) | January 6, 1890 – March 28, 1910 (Died) | Benjamin Harrison | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1884–1889) | |
45 | Henry Billings Brown | 4th | Miller | December 29, 1890 (Acclamation) | January 5, 1891 – May 28, 1906 (Retired) | Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (1875–1890) | ||
46 | George Shiras Jr. | 10th | Bradley | July 26, 1892 (Acclamation) | October 10, 1892 – February 23, 1903 (Retired) | Lawyer, Private practice | ||
47 | Howell Edmunds Jackson | 3rd | L. Lamar | February 18, 1893 (Acclamation) | March 4, 1893 – August 8, 1895 (Died) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1891–1893) | ||
48 | Edward Douglass White | 1st | Blatchford | February 19, 1894 (Acclamation) | March 12, 1894 – December 18, 1910 (Continued as chief justice) [lower-alpha 7] | Grover Cleveland | United States senator from Louisiana (1891–1894) | |
49 | Rufus W. Peckham | 3rd | H. Jackson | December 9, 1895 (Acclamation) | January 6, 1896 – October 24, 1909 (Died) | Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals | ||
50 | Joseph McKenna | 9th | Field | January 21, 1898 (Acclamation) | January 26, 1898 – January 5, 1925 (Retired) | William McKinley | 42nd United States attorney general (1897–1898) | |
51 | Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. | 2nd | Gray | December 4, 1902 (Acclamation) | December 8, 1902 – January 12, 1932 (Retired) | Theodore Roosevelt | Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1899–1902) | |
52 | William R. Day | 10th | Shiras | February 23, 1903 (Acclamation) | March 2, 1903 – November 13, 1922 (Retired) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1899–1903) | ||
53 | William Henry Moody | 4th | Brown | December 12, 1906 (Acclamation) | December 17, 1906 – November 20, 1910 (Retired) | 45th United States attorney general (1904–1906) | ||
54 | Horace Harmon Lurton | 3rd | Peckham | December 20, 1909 (Acclamation) | January 3, 1910 – July 12, 1914 (Died) | William Howard Taft | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1893–1909) | |
55 | Charles Evans Hughes | 6th | Brewer | May 2, 1910 (Acclamation) | October 10, 1910 – June 10, 1916 (Resigned) [lower-alpha 8] | 36th governor of New York (1907–1910) | ||
56 | Willis Van Devanter | 1st | E. White | December 15, 1910 (Acclamation) | January 3, 1911 – June 2, 1937 (Retired) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1903–1910) | ||
57 | Joseph Rucker Lamar | 4th | Moody | December 15, 1910 (Acclamation) | January 3, 1911 – January 2, 1916 (Died) | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia (1901–1905) | ||
58 | Mahlon Pitney | 8th | J. Harlan I | March 13, 1912 (50–26) | March 18, 1912 – December 31, 1922 (Resigned) | U.S. representative for New Jersey's 4th district (1895–1899) | ||
59 | James Clark McReynolds | 3rd | Lurton | August 29, 1914 (44–6) | October 12, 1914 – January 31, 1941 (Retired) | Woodrow Wilson | 48th United States attorney general (1913–1914) | |
60 | Louis Brandeis | 4th | J. Lamar | June 1, 1916 (47–22) | June 5, 1916 – February 13, 1939 (Retired) | Lawyer, Private practice: Brandeis Dunbar & Nutter [15] | ||
61 | John Hessin Clarke | 6th | Hughes | July 24, 1916 (Acclamation) | October 9, 1916 – September 5, 1922 (Resigned) | Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (1914–1916) | ||
62 | George Sutherland | Clarke | September 5, 1922 (Acclamation) | October 2, 1922 – January 17, 1938 (Retired) | Warren G. Harding | United States senator from Utah (1905–1917) | ||
63 | Pierce Butler | 10th | Day | December 21, 1922 (61–8) | January 2, 1923 – November 16, 1939 (Died) | President of the Minnesota State Bar Association | ||
64 | Edward Terry Sanford | 8th | Pitney | January 29, 1923 (Acclamation) | February 19, 1923 – March 8, 1930 (Died) | Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (1908–1923) | ||
65 | Harlan F. Stone | 9th | McKenna | February 5, 1925 (71–6) | March 2, 1925 – July 3, 1941 (Continued as chief justice) [lower-alpha 9] | Calvin Coolidge | 52nd United States attorney general (1924–1925) | |
66 | Owen Roberts | 8th | Sanford | May 20, 1930 (Acclamation) | June 2, 1930 – July 31, 1945 (Resigned) | Herbert Hoover | Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia | |
67 | Benjamin N. Cardozo | 2nd | Holmes | February 24, 1932 (Acclamation) | March 14, 1932 – July 9, 1938 (Died) | Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1927–1932) | ||
68 | Hugo Black | 1st | Van Devanter | August 17, 1937 (63–16) | August 19, 1937 – September 17, 1971 (Retired) | Franklin D. Roosevelt | United States senator from Alabama (1927–1937) | |
69 | Stanley Forman Reed | 6th | Sutherland | January 25, 1938 (Acclamation) | January 31, 1938 – February 25, 1957 (Retired) | 22nd United States solicitor general (1935–1938) | ||
70 | Felix Frankfurter | 2nd | Cardozo | January 17, 1939 (Acclamation) | January 30, 1939 – August 28, 1962 (Retired) | Chairman of Harvard Law School | ||
71 | William O. Douglas | 4th | Brandeis | April 4, 1939 (62–4) | April 17, 1939 – November 12, 1975 (Retired) | 3rd chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1937–1939) | ||
72 | Frank Murphy | 10th | Butler | January 16, 1940 (Acclamation) | February 5, 1940 – July 19, 1949 (Died) | 56th United States attorney general (1939–1940) | ||
73 | James F. Byrnes | 3rd | McReynolds | June 12, 1941 (Acclamation) | July 8, 1941 – October 3, 1942 (Resigned) | United States senator from South Carolina (1931–1941) | ||
74 | Robert H. Jackson | 9th | Stone | July 7, 1941 (Acclamation) | July 11, 1941 – October 9, 1954 (Died) | 57th United States attorney general (1940–1941) | ||
75 | Wiley Blount Rutledge | 3rd | Byrnes | February 8, 1943 (Acclamation) | February 15, 1943 – September 10, 1949 (Died) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1939–1943) | ||
76 | Harold Hitz Burton | 8th | Roberts | September 19, 1945 (Acclamation) | October 1, 1945 – October 13, 1958 (Retired) | Harry S. Truman | United States senator from Ohio (1941–1945) | |
77 | Tom C. Clark | 10th | Murphy | August 18, 1949 (73–8) | August 24, 1949 – June 12, 1967 (Retired) | 59th United States attorney general (1945–1949) | ||
78 | Sherman Minton | 3rd | W. Rutledge | October 12, 1949 (48–16) | October 12, 1949 – October 15, 1956 (Retired) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1941–1949) | ||
79 | John Marshall Harlan | 9th | R. Jackson | March 16, 1955 (71–11) | March 28, 1955 – September 23, 1971 (Retired) | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1954–1955) | |
80 | William J. Brennan Jr. | 3rd | Minton | March 19, 1957 (Acclamation) | October 15, 1956 [lower-alpha 5] – July 20, 1990 (Retired) | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey (1951–1956) | ||
81 | Charles Evans Whittaker | 6th | Reed | March 19, 1957 (Acclamation) | March 25, 1957 – March 31, 1962 (Retired) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1956–1957) | ||
82 | Potter Stewart | 8th | Burton | May 5, 1959 (70–17) | October 14, 1958 [lower-alpha 5] – July 3, 1981 (Retired) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1954–1958) | ||
83 | Byron White | 6th | Whittaker | April 11, 1962 (Acclamation) | April 16, 1962 – June 28, 1993 (Retired) | John F. Kennedy | 4th United States deputy attorney general (1961–1962) | |
84 | Arthur Goldberg | 2nd | Frankfurter | September 25, 1962 (Acclamation) | October 1, 1962 – July 26, 1965 (Resigned) | 9th United States secretary of labor (1961–1962) | ||
85 | Abe Fortas | Goldberg | August 11, 1965 (Acclamation) | October 4, 1965 – May 14, 1969 (Resigned) | Lyndon B. Johnson | United States under secretary of the interior | ||
86 | Thurgood Marshall | 10th | Clark | August 30, 1967 (69–11) | October 2, 1967 – October 1, 1991 (Retired) | 32nd solicitor general of the United States (1965–1967) | ||
87 | Harry Blackmun | 2nd | Fortas | May 12, 1970 (94–0) | June 9, 1970 – August 3, 1994 (Retired) | Richard Nixon | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1959–1970) | |
88 | Lewis F. Powell Jr. | 1st | Black | December 6, 1971 (89–1) | January 7, 1972 – June 26, 1987 (Retired) | President of the American Bar Association (1964–1965) | ||
89 | William Rehnquist | 9th | J. Harlan II | December 10, 1971 (68–26) | January 7, 1972 – September 26, 1986 (Continued as chief justice) [lower-alpha 10] | United States assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel (1969–1971) | ||
90 | John Paul Stevens | 4th | Douglas | December 17, 1975 (98–0) | December 19, 1975 – June 29, 2010 (Retired) | Gerald Ford | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1970–1975) | |
91 | Sandra Day O'Connor | 8th | Stewart | September 21, 1981 (99–0) | September 25, 1981 – January 31, 2006 (Retired) | Ronald Reagan | Judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals (1979–1981) | |
92 | Antonin Scalia | 9th | Rehnquist | September 17, 1986 (98–0) | September 26, 1986 – February 13, 2016 (Died) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1982–1986) | ||
93 | Anthony Kennedy | 1st | Powell | February 3, 1988 (97–0) | February 18, 1988 – July 31, 2018 (Retired) | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1975–1988) | ||
94 | David Souter | 3rd | Brennan | October 2, 1990 (90–9) | October 9, 1990 – June 29, 2009 (Retired) | George H. W. Bush | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990) | |
95 | Clarence Thomas | 10th | Marshall | October 15, 1991 (52–48) | October 23, 1991 – Incumbent | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990–1991) | ||
96 | Ruth Bader Ginsburg | 6th | B. White | August 3, 1993 (96–3) | August 10, 1993 – September 18, 2020 (Died) | Bill Clinton | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1980–1993) | |
97 | Stephen Breyer | 2nd | Blackmun | July 29, 1994 (87–9) | August 3, 1994 – June 30, 2022 (Retired) | Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990–1994) | ||
98 | Samuel Alito | 8th | O'Connor | January 31, 2006 (58–42) | January 31, 2006 – Incumbent | George W. Bush | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1990–2006) | |
99 | Sonia Sotomayor | 3rd | Souter | August 6, 2009 (68–31) | August 8, 2009 – Incumbent | Barack Obama | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1998–2009) | |
100 | Elena Kagan | 4th | Stevens | August 5, 2010 (63–37) | August 7, 2010 – Incumbent | 45th solicitor general of the United States (2009–2010) | ||
101 | Neil Gorsuch | 9th | Scalia | April 7, 2017 (54–45) | April 10, 2017 – Incumbent | Donald Trump | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2006–2017) | |
102 | Brett Kavanaugh | 1st | Kennedy | October 6, 2018 (50–48) | October 6, 2018 – Incumbent | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2006–2018) | ||
103 | Amy Coney Barrett | 6th | Ginsburg | October 26, 2020 (52–48) | October 27, 2020 – Incumbent | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020) | ||
104 | Ketanji Brown Jackson | 2nd | Breyer | April 7, 2022 (53–47) | June 30, 2022 – Incumbent | Joe Biden | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2021–2022) |
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Willis Van Devanter was an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1911 to 1937. He was a staunch conservative and was regarded as a part of the Four Horsemen, the conservative bloc which dominated the Supreme Court during the 1930s.
Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson is an American lawyer and jurist who is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden on February 25, 2022, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn into office that same year. She is the first black woman and the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court. From 2021 to 2022, Jackson was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The nomination and confirmation of justices to the Supreme Court of the United States involves several steps, the framework for which is set forth in the United States Constitution. Specifically, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, provides that the president of the United States nominates a justice and that the United States Senate provides advice and consent before the person is formally appointed to the Court. It also empowers a president to temporarily, under certain circumstances, fill a Supreme Court vacancy by means of a recess appointment. The Constitution does not set any qualifications for service as a justice, thus the president may nominate any individual to serve on the Court.