SCOTUS
Judgeships
Posts: 9
Judges: 9
Vacancies: 0
Judges
Chief:John Roberts
Active judges:Samuel Alito,Amy Coney Barrett,Neil Gorsuch,Ketanji Brown Jackson,Elena Kagan,Brett Kavanaugh,John Roberts,Sonia Sotomayor,Clarence Thomas Senior judges: Stephen Breyer,Anthony Kennedy

TheSupreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the country and leads the judicial branch of the federal government. It is often referred to by the acronymSCOTUS.^[1]

The Supreme Court consists of nine justices: theChief Justice of the United States and eightAssociate Justices. The justices are nominated by thepresident and confirmed with the"advice and consent" of theUnited States Senate perArticle II of the United States Constitution. As federal judges, the justices serve during "good behavior," which means that justices have tenure for life unless they are removed by impeachment and subsequent conviction.^[2]

The Supreme Court is the only court established by theUnited States Constitution (inArticle III); all other federal courts are created byCongress.

The Supreme Court meets inWashington, D.C., in the United States Supreme Court building. The Supreme Court's yearly term begins on the first Monday in October and lasts until the first Monday in October the following year. The court generally releases the majority of its decisions in mid-June.^[2]

Active Justices

Article III Justices

See:Article III federal judge

Article III Justices
Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Preceeded by	Law school
Associate justice Samuel Alito	April 1, 1950	Trenton, N.J.	W. Bush	January 31, 2006 - Present	Sandra Day O'Connor	Yale Law School, 1975
Chief justice John Roberts	January 27, 1955	Buffalo, N.Y.	W. Bush	September 29, 2005 - Present	William Rehnquist	Harvard Law, 1979
Associate justice Clarence Thomas	June 23, 1948	Savannah, Ga.	H.W. Bush	July 1, 1991 - Present	Thurgood Marshall	Yale Law School, 1974
Associate justice Elena Kagan	April 28, 1960	New York, N.Y.	Obama	August 7, 2010 - Present	John Paul Stevens	Harvard Law School, J.D., 1986
Associate justice Sonia Sotomayor	June 25, 1954	New York, N.Y.	Obama	August 6, 2009 - Present	David Souter	Yale Law School, 1979
Associate justice Neil Gorsuch	August 29, 1967	Denver, Colo.	Trump	April 10, 2017 - Present	Antonin Scalia	Harvard Law School, 1991
Associate justice Brett Kavanaugh	February 12, 1965	Washington, D.C.	Trump	October 6, 2018 - Present	Anthony Kennedy	Yale Law School, 1990
Associate justice Amy Coney Barrett	January 28, 1972	New Orleans, La.	Trump	October 26, 2020 - Present	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	Notre Dame Law School, 1997
Associate justice Ketanji Brown Jackson	September 14, 1970	Washington, D.C.	Biden	June 30, 2022 - present	Stephen Breyer	Harvard Law School, 1996

SCOTUS background

Article III of the United States Constitution describes the original framework for theJudicial Branch. It establishes the U.S. Supreme Court as the nation's highest court and gives Congress the authority to create lower federal courts.

Article III, Section 1

Section 1 establishes the Supreme Court of the United States. It givesCongress the power to organize the Supreme Court and to establish lower courts. It also states that justices can serve on the court for as long as they maintain "good Behaviour," and that the justices should be compensated for their service.

Size of the court

See also:United States court reorganization legislation

Article III gives Congress the authority to set the number of Supreme Court justices. The court has onechief justice and eightassociate justices, but the number has fluctuated since 1789.

• Originally, the total number of justices was set at six by theJudiciary Act of 1789. PresidentGeorge Washington signed the act into law on September 24, 1789, and he nominatedJohn Jay to serve as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.^[4]

• TheJudiciary Act of 1801 reduced the number of justices from six to five.^[5]

• In 1807, Congress increased the number of justices on the Supreme Court to seven "in response to the geographic expansion of the nation and the increased caseload of the district courts in the west. The act established a Seventh Circuit, consisting of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and specified that the new justice be assigned to preside over the U.S. circuit courts within that circuit."^[6]

• TheEighth and Ninth Circuits Act of 1837 created the Eighth and Ninth Circuits to provide for an expanded caseload due to the admission of new states to the Union. This Act also rearranged the Seventh Circuit and created two new seats on the Supreme Court to support the circuit court.^[7]

• TheTenth Circuit Act of 1863 created the Tenth Circuit to representCalifornia andOregon, eliminated the California Circuit Court and added another member to the Supreme Court. This act gave the Supreme Court its highest number of members in history, with the chief justice and nine associate justices serving.^[8]

• TheJudicial Circuits Act of 1866 reorganized the circuits in the thirty-six state nation, reducing the number of circuits from ten to nine. This reorganization created a basic structure of circuits lasting to present day. The Act also eliminated three positions on the Supreme Court.^[9]

• TheJudiciary Act of 1869 again increased the size of the Supreme Court, setting it at nine justices, one for each circuit.^[10]

Tenure

According toSupremeCourt.gov, "The Constitution states that Justices 'shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour.' This means that the Justices hold office as long as they choose and can only be removed from office by impeachment. The only Justice to be impeached was Associate Justice Samuel Chase in 1805. The House of Representatives passed Articles of Impeachment against him; however, he was acquitted by the Senate."^[11]

Salary

Section I states that justices will "receive for their Services a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office." According to the Judicial Learning Center, "This security allows judges to decide each case strictly in terms of the legal issues in front of them, no matter how unpopular their decisions may be," which helps guaranteejudicial independence.^[12] In 2016, the salary for Chief JusticeJohn Roberts was set at $260,700, and the salary for the associate justices was set at $249,300.^[13]

Article III, Section 2

Section 2 establishes the court's jurisdiction. The court hasoriginal andappellate jurisdiction.

Original jurisdiction is "a court's power to hear and decide a case before any appellate review."^[14] According to28 U.S. Code § 1251, the Supreme Court has "original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more States." It also has "original but not exclusive jurisdiction of:(1) All actions or proceedings to which ambassadors, other public ministers, consuls, or vice consuls of foreign states are parties;(2) All controversies between the United States and a State;(3) All actions or proceedings by a State against the citizens of another State or against aliens."^[15]

Appellate jurisdiction accounts for most of the cases on the court's docket, and is "The power of a court to hear appeals from lower courts. This includes the power to reverse or modify the the [sic] lower court's decision."^[16]

Nomination and confirmation process

Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives thePresident of the United States the authority to nominate Supreme Court justices, and they are appointed with theadvice and consent of theSenate. The newest member of the Supreme Court, JusticeKetanji Brown Jackson, was nominated by PresidentJoe Biden (D) on February 28, 2022, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 7, 2022.

Choosing a nominee

List of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court drawn up by Attorney General Levi and annotated and amended by President Gerald R. Ford.

Although the rules for appointing and confirming a U.S. Supreme Court justice are set out in the U.S. Constitution, the process for choosing nominees is not codified in law. Past presidents have received lists of recommendations from the White House counsel, the attorney general and lawyers in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Justices have often been friends or acquaintances who shared ideological views with the president.^[17]

The nominating process is also influenced by individuals and organizations outside of the administration. The American Bar Association (ABA), through its 15-member Committee on Federal Judiciary, rates nominees as "well qualified," "qualified" or "not qualified." Others also lobby the president to choose nominees sympathetic to their views or to oppose those with whom they differ.^[18]

Some presidents have required that a nominee hold a specific position on a key issue in order to be considered for nomination, sometimes referred to as alitmus test. Such a test is typically on an important social issue. But a nominee's views do not always conform to their future opinions. Some justices have ruled in ways that surprised the presidents who nominated them. Notable examples are Justice Tom C. Clark (nominated by President Harry S. Truman), Chief JusticeEarl Warren (nominated by PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower) and JusticeDavid Souter (nominated by PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush).^[19]

The usual nomination process starts with the president choosing a nominee. It is not uncommon for the president to consult Senate leadership and the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee before deciding on a nominee.^[20][21]

Consideration by the Senate Judiciary

"Ruth Bader Ginsburg being sworn into the U.S. Supreme Court while President Bill Clinton looks on.," August 10, 1993

After the president nominates an individual, theSenate Judiciary Committee conducts a rigorous investigation into the nominee’s background, gleaning a sense of his or her judicial philosophy and temperament, which helps inform whether the senator will support the nominee. During this part of the process, the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary reviews the nominee. The nominee also visits with senators in their offices in order to help win support for nomination. The most public aspect of the process is when the nominee testifies before the Judiciary Committee and takes questions. The hearing, which is kept open at the discretion of the chair, can last more than a day, as members, particularly opponents, verbally spar with the nominee. Having the nominee appear before the committee became a part of the process beginning with the nomination of John M. Harlan in 1955. The first televised Supreme Court nomination hearing took place in 1981 for Sandra Day O’Connor.^[20][21]

Typically, a week after the hearing is adjourned, the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a vote on the nominee. The committee’s practice has been to send the nomination, whether or not the nominee wins a majority, to the full Senate to allow the chamber to decide whether he or she should be confirmed.^[20][21]

"President George W. Bush watches as Judge John G. Roberts is sworn-in as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States by Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens," September 29, 2005.

The debate in the Senate is scheduled by the Senate majority leader in consultation with the minority leader. In 2013, the Senate lowered the threshold to close debate on most nominations to a simple majority from 60 votes. But the change did not affect Supreme Court nominees, whose confirmation requires 60 votes to invoke cloture and end debate and proceed to a confirmation vote.^[20][21]

Recess appointment

The president also may choose to make a recess appointment, which would avoid the need for Senate confirmation. But the justice's term would end with the end of the next session of Congress, rather than the lifetime appointments provided by Senate confirmation. There have been 12 recess appointments made to the Supreme Court, most in the 19th century, according to the Congressional Research Service. The most recent was made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.^[20][21]

Oath of office

When a Supreme Court nominee is confirmed by the Senate,Article VI of the U.S. Constitution requires the individual to take an oath of office before officially taking his or her place on the court.

Nominees must also take a judicial oath. According toSupremeCourt.gov, "The origin of the second oath is found in the Judiciary Act of 1789, which reads 'the justices of the Supreme Court, and the district judges, before they proceed to execute the duties of their respective offices' to take a second oath or affirmation."^[22]

Code of conduct

The Supreme Court released a code of conduct for Supreme Court justices on November 13, 2023. A statement prefacing the code said, "For the most part these rules and principles are not new. [...] The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules. To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct."^[23]

All nine sitting justices at the time, Justices Roberts, Alito, Barrett, Gorsuch, Jackson, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Sotomayor, and Thomas, signed onto the code.Reuters' Andrew Chung and John Kruzel wrote, "The new code drew mixed reviews, with some critics noting the apparent absence of any enforcement mechanism. It was adopted after a series of media reports detailing ethics questions surrounding some Supreme Court members."^[24]

Expand the section below to read the text of the code of conduct as released on November 13, 2023.

Circuit assignments

Each Supreme Court justice is assigned to one of the 13circuit courts of appeals, according toTitle 28, United States Code, Section 42.^[25] "Circuit Justices are responsible for ruling on certain motions arising from their assigned circuits, such as motions for extensions of time. In the case motions for a stay of execution or other motions relating to death penalty matters, the Circuit Justice ordinarily refers the motion to the Court as a whole, but takes the lead in recommending a disposition of the motion," according toSCOTUSblog.^[26]

Click on your region to find more information about the court of appeals for your state.

Political ideology of the justices

Although the justices do not represent political parties, media outlets such asThe Washington Post commonly characterize Justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor as liberal and Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas as conservative.[27]

Supreme Court scholars have also developed measures of the justices' political ideologies, such as the Segal-Cover score. The Segal-Cover score, which was first presented in a 1989 paper by State University of New York-Stony Brook professors Jeffrey Segal and Albert Cover, is based on an analysis of newspaper editorials published between the time of each justice's nomination to the Supreme Court and his or her confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Scores range from 0, which is the most conservative, to 100, which is the most liberal.^[28]

Updated Segal-Cover scores were included in the January 17, 2021, version of The Supreme Court Justices Database, a project led by Washington University in St. Louis professors Lee Epstein and Nancy Staudt and Emory University professor Thomas Walker.^[29] The January 2021 scores for the justices appear below from most liberal to most conservative.

Political ideology of Supreme Court justices[29]
Sotomayor: 78	Kagan: 73	Breyer: 47.5	Barrett: 23	Thomas: 16	Roberts: 12	Gorsuch: 11	Alito: 10	Kavanaugh: 7

Opinions

See also:United States Supreme Court cases and courts

Former Chief Justices

The following individuals previously served as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court Building

Construction of the U.S. Supreme Court Building in December, 1933.

The Supreme Court first met in the Merchants Exchange Building inNew York City and then moved to Independence Hall inPhiladelphia when the federal government moved there in 1790. In 1800, when the federal government moved for a final time toWashington, D.C., the court met in various rooms in the Capitol Building. "Additionally, the Court convened for a short period in a private house after the British set fire to the Capitol during the War of 1812. Following this episode, the Court returned to the Capitol and met from 1819 to 1860 in a chamber now restored as the 'Old Supreme Court Chamber.' Then from 1860 until 1935, the Court sat in what is now known as the 'Old Senate Chamber,'" according toSupremCourt.gov. In 1929, "architect Cass Gilbert was charged by Chief Justice Taft to design 'a building of dignity and importance suitable for its use as the permanent home of the Supreme Court of the United States.'" Construction was completed in 1935, and the court moved to its permanent residence at One First Street Northeast, Washington, D.C.^[30]

Seating

Inside the U.S. Supreme Court.

According toSupremeCourt.gov, "As is customary in American courts, the nine Justices are seated by seniority on the Bench. The Chief Justice occupies the center chair; the senior Associate Justice sits to his right, the second senior to his left, and so on, alternating right and left by seniority."^[31][32][33]

See also

• 

  History of the Supreme Court

• 

  Supreme Court of the United States

• 

  Read about the last term

• Federal judicial appointments by president
• Article III, United States Constitution
• Landmark cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States

External links

• U.S. Supreme Court website

Footnotes

v • e Justices of theSupreme Court of the United States
Active justices	Chief justice:Roberts Associate justices:Alito •Barrett •Gorsuch •Jackson •Kagan •Kavanaugh •Sotomayor •Thomas
Senior justices	Breyer •Kennedy •Souter
Former chief justices	Burger •Chase •Ellsworth •Fuller •Hughes •Jay •Marshall •Rehnquist •Rutledge •Stone •Taft •Taney •Vinson •Waite •Warren • White
Former associate justices	O'Connor •Baldwin •Barbour •Black •Blackmun •Blair •Blatchford •Bradley •Brandeis •Brennan •Brewer •Brown •Burton •Butler •Byrnes •Campbell •Cardozo •Catron •Chase •Clark •Clarke •Clifford •Curtis •Cushing •Daniel •Davis •Day •Douglas •Duvall •Field •Fortas •Frankfurter •Ginsburg •Goldberg •Gray •Grier •Harlan I •Harlan II •Holmes •Hunt •Iredell •H. Jackson •R. Jackson •T. Johnson •W. Johnson, Jr. •J. Lamar •L. Lamar •Livingston •Lurton •Marshall •Matthews •McKenna •McKinley •McLean •McReynolds •Miller •Minton •Moody •Moore •Murphy •Nelson •Paterson •Peckham •Pitney •Powell •Reed •Roberts •W. Rutledge •Sanford •Scalia •Shiras •Stevens •Stewart •Story •Strong •Sutherland •Swayne •Thompson •Todd •Trimble •Van Devanter •Washington •Wayne •B. White •Whittaker •Wilson •Woodbury •Woods