The ceiling of the court is 14 feet and 4 inches tall, with the floor being 78 feet long and 37 feet wide, which is smaller than NBA regulation size. The floor was originally concrete, though a new floor was installed in 1984 and a 2015 renovation installed a "pristine" hardwood floor. The court originally had wooden backboards, though they were changed to plexiglass in 1984 or 1997. The room does not have any benches. Due to the court's low ceiling, players with skill in long-range shooting are disadvantaged. The room has a warning sign which declares: "Playing basketball and weightlifting are prohibited while the court is in session."[1][2]Mike Lee, who clerked for Justice Samuel Alito in the 2006–07 term, recalled how a player dribbling would translate into "big booms" in the court chambers.[3]
The court is not used exclusively for basketball, with other sports being played in it and an adjacent gym. Justice Hugo Black and Chief Justice William Rehnquist both used it for tennis, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor used it for aerobics, and multiple justices weightlifted. However, basketball is the game of choice for most. The games are mostly played by Supreme Court clerks, though the building's security guards, cafeteria workers, librarians, and legal clerks sometimes fill-in, with justices also playing infrequently.[1][2] Former clerks have described the court as offering a much-needed break in a job that often requires working extremely long hours.[4] The teams on the court are not decided by judicial philosophy or ideology.[2]
The Supreme Court Building, finished in 1935, featured a storage area on its fifth and final floor. In the 1940s the storage area was transformed into a gymnasium, with wooden backboards being added, enabling the sport of basketball to be played. The person responsible for this transformation, the reason they transformed it, and when they precisely transformed it is unknown. There is an unverified account that the transformation was suggested by Cass Gilbert Jr., the son of the building's architect.[1] One of the gym's earliest adopters was Justice Hugo Black, who played tennis.[2]
Byron White, believed to be the first Justice to play on the court
In the 1947–48 term, according to John Paul Stevens, who clerked for Justice Wiley Rutledge, a clerk for Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, former National Football League player Byron White, was practicing layups while SCOTUS was hearing arguments. The sound could be heard by the justices and Vinson quickly promulgated that no basketball would be played while SCOTUS was in session.[5] White was appointed to the SCOTUS by John F. Kennedy in 1962 at the age of 44 and, according to Sandra Day O'Connor, became the first justice to play on the court.[6]:163 White would invite his clerks to play games every afternoon and would continue to play well into his seventies.[1] After SCOTUS decided against the government in New York Times Co. v. United States, Solicitor GeneralErwin Griswold revealed that he had received reliable leaks of SCOTUS's decisions, and intimated that it was because staff members of his were friends with clerks. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger's attempts to have the FBI interrogate clerks was rebuffed, but Burger succeeded in prohibiting the clerks from scheduling basketball matches with the solicitor general's office.[7]:174–175 In 1974, clerks playing on the court had to race out of it to prepare filings after Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski unexpectedly petitioned SCOTUS for cert to reveal the smoking gun tape.[7]:342
At the end of the 1979–80 term, there was a tournament between the clerks of the nine justices, which one clerk described as a "nice diversion and distraction" during a stressful period of the year.[2] The clerks of Justice Harry Blackmun and Chief Justice Burger made it to the final; waving a banner reading "BEAT THE CHIEF" and with Blackmun watching, his clerks were defeated on the face of a dominating performance by Burger clerk Neil Eggleston.[2]John Roberts clerked for Rehnquist in the 1980–81 term and frequently played him on the court.[3] Roberts described his playstyle as "forty minutes of what the hell" (a reference to Nolan Richardson's forty minutes of hell),[2] and colleagues recalled that while he lacked skill, he had plenty of enthusiasm and played aggressively.[8]
The court is dominated by men, reflecting the hiring disparity women seeking clerkships face. Penda Hair, who worked for Justice Blackmun in the 1979–80 term, was initially hesitant to ask to join in, however she recalled being "conscious of the place of women in the building and in the legal profession, so I did not think that there should be an all-male basketball game." Her male coworkers accepted her request to join in. Some women competed in all-women games, while others competed in mixed-sex games. In the 1987–88 term, Richard Cordray, who clerked for White, made sure to set up shots for his coworkers, with the Thurgood Marshall clerk Elena Kagan occasionally hitting jump shots as a result. Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, recognized the gender disparity on the court and reserved it in the mornings to host aerobics classes, encouraging other women to attend.[2] In 1995, O'Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a tour of the court to Team USA; during the tour, O'Connor and Team USA were able to make a field goal, however Ginsburg missed.[9] The court is a refuge for clerks during capital punishment cases; Noah Feldman, who clerked for Justice David Souter in the 1998–99 term, recalled how stressed clerks are during those cases, as a "human being's life is in the balance".[2] In 2002, when the average age of the justices was 68 and with White retired, there were no active players among the justices.[1]
In 2017, during Neil Gorsuch's nomination hearings, Senator Ted Cruz, who clerked for Rehnquist in the 1996–97 term, asked Gorsuch, who clerked for White and Justice Anthony Kennedy in the 1993–94 term, whether he had gotten the opportunity to play with White on the court. Gorsuch noted that he had not, but that White had played some H-O-R-S-E during his clerkship.[2] In 2018, during Brett Kavanaugh's nomination hearings, Cruz noted that no member of SCOTUS since Justice Clarence Thomas, many years prior, had played on the court and asked Kavanaugh, who clerked for Kennedy in the 1993–94 term, whether he would play if confirmed, with Kavanaugh answering in the affirmative.[10] On September 7, Mother Jones called the question one of the softest softball questions Kavanaugh received during his hearings.[11]
Injuries
In the 1971–72 term, White was injured while playing on the court and had to use crutches for a few days.[2] On one occasion, White injured his ankle after failing to catch a rebound. He was forced onto crutches and out of the court for a season, though his clerks gifted him a game of foosball to compensate. White sought to keep the reason he was injured secret.[7]:218 White was fiercely competitive[7]:72 and often elbowed his clerks and called fouls, with White "bitching" when they were called on him.[7]:218 O'Connor recalled an occasion when White accidentally swung at a clerk, knocking them out. White was said to have picked the clerk up and, after asking if they were okay, said "Well, then get on with the game!"[6]:123–124
In April 1993, Justice Clarence Thomas played his first match on the court after Olympian basketball player and clerk Karl Tilleman had spent months badgering to play him. After 30 minutes of play, Thomas fell to the floor and began writhing in pain, having torn his Achilles tendon. After receiving surgery, Thomas began hobbling around with crutches and wearing a cast, and said that his injury would not interfere with his SCOTUS duties.[12] Thomas insisted that a photo with Tilleman be a full body shot, to show his cast, and he whispered to Tilleman "I want you to remember for the rest of your life what you did to me." Justice Anthony Kennedy asked White, who was not playing on the court at the time, whether he was responsible. White responded that "If it had been me, both his legs would've been in a cast."[2][6]:123–124Sports Illustrated and O'Connor both reported that White was joking.[2][6]:123–124 In 2004, Thomas again injured his tendon during a game; Thomas Rex Lee recounted how Thomas, after being invited to play H-O-R-S-E as he was unable to play normal basketball after his injury, responded "Supreme Court justices don't play H-O-R-S-E, they play habeas corpus."[3]
In the 1987–88 term, there were a large numbers of injuries and Rehnquist frequently had to find substitutes for his doubles tennis matches. One of those injured that term was Elena Kagan, who landed on the floor awkwardly and had to be sent to the hospital. When O'Connor saw Kagan hobbling she remarked "It would not have happened in aerobics."[2]Goodwin Liu, who clerked for Ginsburg in the 2000–01 term, recalled running into a large Scalia clerk and spraining his ankle.[13]
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