Supreme Court of the United States
Back row (left to right): Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Front row (left to right): Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Elena Kagan
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States of America. Because of this, the Court leads the Judicial Branch of the United States Federal Government. It is the only U.S. court established by the United States Constitution. Its decisions are supposed to be followed by all other courts in the United States. Since 1935, the Court has met in its own building in Washington, D.C.; before that, it met in the United States Capitol.
History
In the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the delegates, or someone appointed by a state to represent that state's interests, debated the separation of powers between the legislative and executive departments. Template:Source?
People, including James Madison, advocated, or argued in favor of, a national judicial authority (the power to enforce the administration of justice). Delegates who did not want a strong central government argued that national laws can be enforced by the states. The delegates compromised by only making a general outline (an overall plan of making something happen) of the judicial authority, giving the federal judicial power to "one supreme court". They did not define the exact powers the Supreme Court had. However, laws from the federal government later defined parts of how the Court works. Template:Source?
Supreme Court justices
Amount of Justices
There are 9 justices on the court now: one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. The U.S Constitution does not state how many justices are required to be in the Court, nor does it state a limit on how many justices there should be in the Court. The 9 justice limit was set by the Judiciary Act of 1869, and it was the last of any law passed that set a set amount of justices for the Supreme Court.
Names of Courts
Courts (a set of all justices of the court while one Chief Justice is serving) are unofficially named after the Chief Justice. The current Court is called the "Roberts Court" after Chief Justice John Roberts. The first Court is known as the "Jay Court" after John Jay.
Justices Serving
All justices serve for life unless they retire, resign, die, or get impeached. If a justice retires, they can be asked to serve as a judge on a Federal Court of Appeals.
When justices leave the court, new justices are nominated (picked) by the President of the United States. To apply checks and balances, they must be approved by the United States Senate.[source?]
Process of getting a new Justice
The Constitution does not set any requirements for who serve as a justice of the Supreme Court, so a president many nominate anyone to serve and the Senate may not limit who the president chooses. However, the Senate may prevent a candidate from being a Supreme Court justice through rejection, but these events are not common. A president can remove a nomination before the Senate votes to confirm the nominee (the person being nominated) or not. In addition, the Senate may fail to vote on a nomination, causing the nomination to expire (reach an end date) and no longer be voted on.
Once the Senate approves the nomination, the president must sign a commission (document to give a person an official duty) and sign it before the upcoming justice can be a part of the Supreme Court. The upcoming justice must take two oaths before becoming a part of the Supreme Court.
Process of Supreme Court Cases
The Supreme Court chooses which cases it will decide on, by choosing to give a writ of certiorari or not.[1] Almost 7,000 people, known as petitioners, ask the Supreme Court to decide their cases every year, but the court only gives a writ to about 100 or less.[2]
For the Supreme Court to decide a case, the case usually must be about:
- Federal law
- The Constitution of the United States
- Disagreements between U.S states or the residents of that state
- Another court's decision that is different from what the Supreme Court has decided on a similar case.
Introducing a new case
Cases must first be decided by a federal district court and a federal court of appeals or by a state supreme court. The person who lost in the case can request the Supreme Court to look at a case for a final chance at appealing a case.
After that, the Supreme Court can choose not to decide a case for any reason. Cases about disagreements between states or their residents sometimes can only be decided by the Supreme Court, but those are rare.[source?]
The current Court
| Justice / birthdate and place |
Appointed by | SCV | Age at | Start date / length of service |
Previous position or office (most recent prior to joining the Court) |
Replaced | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Present | |||||||
|
John Roberts January 27, 1955 (aged 71) |
G. W. Bush |
78-22[3] | 50 | 71 | September 29, 2005 21 years, 46 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2003–2005) | Rehnquist |
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|
Clarence Thomas June 23, 1948 (aged 78) |
G. H. W. Bush |
52–48 | 43 | 78 | October 23, 1991 35 years, 22 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990–1991) | Marshall |
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|
Samuel Alito April 1, 1950 (aged 76) |
G. W. Bush |
58-42 | 55 | 76 | January 31, 2006 20 years, 287 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1990–2006) | O'Connor |
|
Sonia Sotomayor June 25, 1954 (aged 72) |
Obama |
68-31 | 55 | 72 | August 8, 2009 17 years, 98 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1998–2009) | Souter |
|
Elena Kagan April 28, 1960 (aged 66) |
Obama |
63-37 | 50 | 66 | August 7, 2010 16 years, 99 days |
Solicitor General of the United States (2009–2010) | Stevens |
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|
Neil Gorsuch August 29, 1967 (aged 59) |
Trump |
54–45 | 49 | 59 | April 10, 2017 9 years, 218 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2006–2017) | Scalia |
|
Brett Kavanaugh February 12, 1965 (aged 61) |
Trump |
50-48 | 53 | 61 | October 6, 2018 8 years, 39 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2006–2018) | Kennedy |
|
Amy Coney Barrett January 28, 1972 (aged 54) |
Trump |
52–48 | 48 | 54 | October 27, 2020 6 years, 18 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020) | Ginsburg |
|
Ketanji Brown Jackson September 14, 1970 (aged 56) |
Biden |
53-47 | 51 | 56 | June 30, 2022 4 years, 137 days |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2021–2022) | Breyer |
| Source: [4] | ||||||||
Living former justices
| Justice Birthdate and place |
Appointed by | Retired under | Age at | Tenure | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Retirement | Present | Start date | End date | Length | ||||
|
Anthony Kennedy July 23, 1936 Sacramento, California |
Reagan |
Trump |
51 | 82 | 90 | February 18, 1988 | July 31, 2018 | 30 years, 163 days |
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|
Stephen Breyer August 15, 1938 San Francisco, California |
Clinton
|
Biden |
55 | 83 | 88 | August 3, 1994 | June 30, 2022 | 27 years, 319 days |
Supreme Court Of The United States Media
The Royal Exchange in New York City, the first meeting place of the Supreme Court
The court lacked its own building until 1935. For most of that time, it had chambers in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, between 1791 and 1801, the court met in City Hall (pictured) in Philadelphia.
John Marshall, chief justice from 1801 to 1835
The U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., the home of the Supreme Court since 1935
Supreme Court justices with President George W. Bush (center-right) in October 2005. Left to right are: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, John Roberts, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Stephen Breyer.
John Roberts giving testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the 2005 hearings on his nomination to be chief justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg giving testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the 1993 hearings on her nomination to be an associate justice
The interior of the United States Supreme Court
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References
- ↑ 28 U.S.C. § 1254
- ↑ Mauro, Tony. Roberts Dips Toe into Cert Pool. Legal Times (October 21, 2005). Retrieved October 31, 2007.
- ↑ U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 1st Session. www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Current Members. www.supremecourt.gov. Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved October 21, 2018.
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