Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

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Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States. The number of Associate Justices is determined by the United States Congress and is currently set at eight by the Judiciary Act of 1869.

Associate Justices, like the Chief Justice, are nominated by the President of the United States and are confirmed by the United States Senate by majority vote. This is provided for in Article II of the Constitution, which states that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint...Judges of the supreme Court."

Article III of the Constitution specifies that Associate Justices, and all other United States federal judges "shall hold their Offices during good Behavior." This language means that the appointments are effectively for life, ending only when a Justice dies in office, retires, or is removed from office following impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate.[1]

Each of the Justices of the Supreme Court has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it; the Chief Justice's vote counts no more than that of any other Justice. However, in drafting opinions, the Chief Justice enjoys additional influence in case disposition if in the majority through his power to assign who writes the opinion. Otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. Furthermore, the Chief Justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. The Chief Justice has certain administrative responsibilities that the other Justices do not and is paid slightly more ($223,500 per year for the Chief Justice and $213,900 per year for each Associate Justice[2]).

Associate Justices have seniority by order of appointment, although the Chief Justice is always considered to be the most senior. If two justices are appointed on the same day, the older is designated the senior Justice of the two. Currently, the senior Associate Justice is Antonin Scalia. By tradition, when the Justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Court, the justices state their views in order of seniority. If there is a knock at their conference room door, the junior justice (who sits closest to the door) must answer it. The current junior justice is Elena Kagan.

Under 28 USC 3, when the Chief Justice is unable to discharge his functions, or that office is vacant, his duties are carried out by the most senior Associate Justice until the disability or the vacancy ends.

The current Associate Justices are (in order of seniority):

Contents

Retired Associate Justices

When a Justice retires, they have the opportunity to assume duties similar to that of senior status assumed by District and Circuit Judges. This means that the Justice keeps his or her title, and may serve by assignment on panels of the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Retired Justices may choose to keep a chamber in the Supreme Court building, as well as to employ law clerks. The names of retired Associate Justices continue to appear alongside the other active members on the Bound Volumes of Supreme Court decisions. However, retired Associate Justices (unlike judges on senior status) take no part in the consideration or decision of any cases before the Supreme Court, although they may be appointed by the Chief Justice to sit on lower courts.

Currently, there are three retired Associate Justices: Sandra Day O'Connor, who assumed senior status on January 31, 2006, David H. Souter, who assumed senior status on June 29, 2009, and John Paul Stevens, who assumed senior status on June 29, 2010. Both O'Connor and Souter occassionally serve on panels of the Courts of Appeals of various circuits. As of present, Stevens has chosen not to so serve.

List of Associate Justices

Number Nominee Replacing Date of Senate
Confirmation
President
1 John Rutledge (new seat) September 26, 1789 Washington***
2 William Cushing (new seat) September 26, 1789
3 James Wilson (new seat) September 26, 1789
4 John Blair (new seat) September 26, 1789
5 James Iredell (new seat) February 10, 1790
6 Thomas Johnson[1] Rutledge November 7, 1791
7 William Paterson Johnson March 4, 1793
8 Samuel Chase Blair January 27, 1796
9 Bushrod Washington Wilson December 20, 1798 J. Adams*
10 Alfred Moore Iredell December 10, 1799
11 William Johnson Moore March 24, 1804 Jefferson
12 Henry Brockholst Livingston Paterson December 17, 1806
13 Thomas Todd (new seat) March 2, 1807
14 Gabriel Duvall Chase November 18, 1811 Madison
15 Joseph Story Cushing November 18, 1811
16 Smith Thompson[1] Livingston December 9, 1823 Monroe
17 Robert Trimble Todd May 9, 1826 J. Q. Adams
18 John McLean Trimble March 7, 1829 Jackson*
19 Henry Baldwin Washington January 6, 1830
20 James Moore Wayne Johnson January 9, 1835
21 Philip Pendleton Barbour Duvall March 15, 1836
22 John Catron (new seat) March 8, 1837
23 John McKinley (new seat) September 25, 1837 Van Buren
24 Peter Vivian Daniel Barbour March 2, 1841
25 Samuel Nelson Thompson February 14, 1845 Tyler
26 Levi Woodbury[1] Story January 31, 1846 Polk
27 Robert Cooper Grier Baldwin August 4, 1846
28 Benjamin Robbins Curtis[1] Woodbury December 20, 1851 Fillmore
29 John Archibald Campbell McKinley March 22, 1853 Pierce
30 Nathan Clifford Curtis January 12, 1858 Buchanan
31 Noah Haynes Swayne McLean January 24, 1862 Lincoln*
32 Samuel Freeman Miller Daniel July 16, 1862
33 David Davis Campbell December 8, 1862
34 Stephen Johnson Field (new seat) March 10, 1863
35 William Strong Grier February 18, 1870 Grant*
36 Joseph Philo Bradley (new seat) March 21, 1870
37 Ward Hunt Nelson December 11, 1872
38 John Marshall Harlan Davis November 29, 1877 Hayes
39 William Burnham Woods Strong December 21, 1880
40 Thomas Stanley Matthews Swayne May 12, 1881 Garfield
41 Horace Gray Clifford December 20, 1881 Arthur
42 Samuel Blatchford Hunt March 22, 1882
43 Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar Woods January 16, 1888 Cleveland
44 David Josiah Brewer Matthews December 18, 1889 B. Harrison
45 Henry Billings Brown Miller December 29, 1890
46 George Shiras, Jr. Bradley July 26, 1892
47 Howell Edmunds Jackson Lamar February 18, 1893
48 Edward Douglass White Blatchford February 19, 1894 Cleveland*
49 Rufus Wheeler Peckham Jackson December 9, 1895
50 Joseph McKenna Field January 21, 1898 McKinley
51 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.[1] Gray December 4, 1902 T. Roosevelt
52 William R. Day Shiras February 23, 1903
53 William Henry Moody Brown December 12, 1906
54 Horace Harmon Lurton Peckham December 20, 1909 Taft*
55 Charles Evans Hughes Brewer May 2, 1910
56 Willis Van Devanter White December 15, 1910
57 Joseph Rucker Lamar Moody December 15, 1910
58 Mahlon Pitney Harlan March 13, 1912
59 James Clark McReynolds Lurton August 29, 1914 Wilson
60 Louis Brandeis Lamar June 1, 1916
61 John Hessin Clarke Hughes July 24, 1916
62 George Sutherland Clarke September 5, 1922 Harding*
63 Pierce Butler Day December 21, 1922
64 Edward Terry Sanford Pitney January 29, 1923
65 Harlan Fiske Stone McKenna February 5, 1925 Coolidge
66 Owen Josephus Roberts Sanford May 20, 1930 Hoover*
67 Benjamin N. Cardozo Holmes February 24, 1932
68 Hugo Black Van Devanter August 17, 1937 F. Roosevelt*
69 Stanley Forman Reed Sutherland January 25, 1938
70 Felix Frankfurter Cardozo January 17, 1939
71 William O. Douglas Brandeis April 4, 1939
72 Frank Murphy Butler January 16, 1940
73 James F. Byrnes McReynolds June 12, 1941
74 Robert H. Jackson Stone July 7, 1941
75 Wiley Blount Rutledge Byrnes February 8, 1943
76 Harold Hitz Burton Roberts September 19, 1945 Truman*
77 Tom C. Clark Murphy August 18, 1949
78 Sherman Minton Rutledge October 4, 1949
79 John Marshall Harlan II Jackson March 16, 1955 Eisenhower*
80 William J. Brennan[1] Minton March 19, 1957
81 Charles Evans Whittaker Reed March 19, 1957
82 Potter Stewart[1] Burton May 5, 1959
83 Byron White Whittaker April 11, 1962 Kennedy
84 Arthur Goldberg Frankfurter September 25, 1962
85 Abe Fortas Goldberg August 11, 1965 L. Johnson
86 Thurgood Marshall Clark August 30, 1967
87 Harry Blackmun Fortas May 12, 1970 Nixon*
88 Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. Black December 6, 1971
89 William Rehnquist Harlan December 10, 1971
90 John Paul Stevens Douglas December 17, 1975 Ford
91 Sandra Day O'Connor Stewart September 21, 1981 Reagan*
92 Antonin Scalia Rehnquist September 17, 1986
93 Anthony Kennedy Powell February 3, 1988
94 David Souter Brennan October 2, 1990 G. H. W. Bush
95 Clarence Thomas Marshall October 15, 1991
96 Ruth Bader Ginsburg White August 3, 1993 Clinton
97 Stephen Breyer Blackmun July 29, 1994
98 Samuel Alito O'Connor January 31, 2006 G. W. Bush*
99 Sonia Sotomayor Souter August 6, 2009 Obama
100 Elena Kagan Stevens August 5, 2010

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Recess appointments are a notable exception. See U.S. v. Woodley 751 F.2d 1008, 10014; Recess appointments to the Supreme Court are exceptionally rare. Only two Chief Justices and six Associate Justices have received recess appointments, and only John Rutledge was not subsequently confirmed by the Senate. The last President to make a recess appointment to the Supreme Court was Dwight D. Eisenhower.
  2. ^ Barnes, Robert (2010-01-01). "Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts opts not to ask Congress to raise judicial salaries". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123102599.html. Retrieved 2010-02-17. 

Further reading

External links