List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
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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, 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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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 and thereby started their term 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.
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(a) 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.
(b) 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), Taft retired. According to others, such as the Federal Judicial Center (http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2331), Taft resigned.
Justices by seat
There have been a total of eleven seats: one Chief Justiceship and ten Associate Justiceships. Two of the Associate Justiceships were abolished, leaving the nine-seat Court we are familar with.
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.
The Judicial Circuits Act of 1866 July 23rd [14 Stat. 209] provided that each Associate Justiceship would be abolished as it became vacant until the court was down to six Associate Justiceships. Since there were nine Associate Justiceships at the time of the passage of the Act, a total of three Associate Justiceships could have been abolished:
- 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.
References
- Template:Web reference
- source for term of senior service, reason service terminated, and seat information
- Template:Web reference
- PDF (28 kB)
- source for state, appointer, and term of active service
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)
- The Supreme Court Historical Society (http://www.supremecourthistory.org/)