Supreme Court of the United States

The Roberts Court, 2022
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. [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. [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. 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.

For the Supreme Court to decide a case, the case usually must be about:

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
StartPresent
John Roberts
January 27, 1955 (age 71)
Buffalo, New York

G. W. Bush
(Republican President)

 78-22 50 71 September 29, 2005
21 years, 38 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2003–2005) Rehnquist
Clarence Thomas
June 23, 1948 (age 78)
Pin Point, Georgia

G. H. W. Bush
(Republican President)

 52–48 43 78 October 23, 1991
35 years, 14 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990–1991) Marshall
Samuel Alito
April 1, 1950 (age 76)
Trenton, New Jersey

G. W. Bush
(Republican President)

 58-42 55 76 January 31, 2006
20 years, 279 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1990–2006) O'Connor
Sonia Sotomayor
June 25, 1954 (age 72)
The Bronx, New York

Obama
(Democratic President)

 68-31 55 72 August 8, 2009
17 years, 90 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1998–2009) Souter
Elena Kagan
April 28, 1960 (age 66)
Manhattan, New York

Obama
(Democratic President)

 63-37 50 66 August 7, 2010
16 years, 91 days		 Solicitor General of the United States (2009–2010) Stevens
Neil Gorsuch
August 29, 1967 (age 59)
Denver, Colorado

Trump
(Republican President)

 54–45 49 59 April 10, 2017
9 years, 210 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2006–2017) Scalia
Brett Kavanaugh
February 12, 1965 (age 61)
Washington, D.C.

Trump
(Republican President)

 50-48 53 61 October 6, 2018
8 years, 31 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2006–2018) Kennedy
Amy Coney Barrett
January 28, 1972 (age 54)
New Orleans, Louisiana

Trump
(Republican President)

 52–48 48 54 October 27, 2020
6 years, 10 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020) Ginsburg
Ketanji Brown Jackson
September 14, 1970 (age 56)
Washington, D.C.

Biden
(Democratic president)

53-47 51 56 June 30, 2022
4 years, 129 days		 Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2021–2022) Breyer
     Source: 

Living former justices

Retired justices of the Supreme Court
Justice
Birthdate and place		 Appointed by Retired under Age at Tenure
StartRetirementPresentStart dateEnd dateLength
Anthony Kennedy
July 23, 1936
Sacramento, California

Reagan
(Republican President)

Trump
(Republican President)

 51 82 90 February 18, 1988 July 31, 2018 30 years, 163 days
Stephen Breyer
August 15, 1938
San Francisco, California

Clinton
(Democratic President)

Biden
(Democratic President)

 55 83 88 August 3, 1994 June 30, 2022 27 years, 319 days

References

  1. ↑ 28 U.S.C. § 1254
  2. ↑ Mauro, Tony (October 21, 2005). "Roberts Dips Toe into Cert Pool". Legal Times. Archived from the original on June 2, 2009. Retrieved October 31, 2007.
  3. ↑ "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 1st Session". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
  4. 1 2 "Current Members". www.supremecourt.gov. Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved October 21, 2018.