Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

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.

Like the Chief Justice, Associate Justices 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." Although the Constitution refers to them as "Judges of the Supreme Court," the title actually used is "Associate Justice," introduced in the Judiciary Act of 1789.^[1] Associate justices were traditionally styled "Mr. Justice" in court opinions, but the title was shortened to "Justice" in 1980, a year before the first female justice was appointed.^[2]

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.^[3]

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 ($255,500 per year for the Chief Justice and $244,400 per year for each Associate Justice^[4]).

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 Anthony Kennedy. 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 sitting Associate Justices are, ordered by seniority:

• 

  Anthony Kennedy
  July 23, 1936

• 

  Clarence Thomas
  June 23, 1948

• 

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  March 15, 1933

• 

  Stephen Breyer
  August 15, 1938

• 

  Samuel Alito
  April 1, 1950

• 

  Sonia Sotomayor
  June 25, 1954

• 

  Elena Kagan
  April 28, 1960

Retired Associate Justices

When Justices retire, they have the opportunity to assume duties similar to the 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, or even the US District Courts if so requested and assigned. Retired Justices may choose to keep a set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, as well as to employ law clerks. The names of retired Associate Justices continue to appear alongside those of the active Justices of the Court 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 their former court (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 retired on January 31, 2006, David H. Souter, who retired on June 29, 2009, and John Paul Stevens, who retired on June 29, 2010. Both O'Connor and Souter occasionally 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

№	Portrait	Justice	Replacing	Preceding Office	Confirmation	Confirmation Vote	Tenure	President
1		John Rutledge	(new seat)	1st Governor of South Carolina (1779-1782)	September 26, 1789	Acclamation	September 26, 1789 – March 4, 1791		Washington ***
2		William Cushing	(new seat)	Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court (1777-1789)	September 26, 1789	Acclamation	September 27, 1789 – September 13, 1810
3		James Wilson	(new seat)	Delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787)	September 26, 1789	Acclamation	September 29, 1789 – August 21, 1798
4		John Blair	(new seat)	Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1766-1770)	September 26, 1789	Acclamation	September 30, 1789 – October 25, 1795
5		James Iredell	(new seat)	2nd Attorney General of North Carolina (1779-1782)	February 10, 1790	Acclamation	May 12, 1790 – October 20, 1799
6		Thomas Johnson	Rutledge	1st Governor of Maryland (1777-1779)	November 7, 1791	Acclamation	August 5, 1792 – January 16, 1793
7		William Paterson	Johnson	2nd Governor of New Jersey (1790-1793)	March 4, 1793	Acclamation	March 4, 1793 – September 8, 1806
8		Samuel Chase I	Blair	Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court (1791-1796)	January 27, 1796	Acclamation	January 27, 1796 – June 19, 1811
9		Bushrod Washington	Wilson	Delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)	December 20, 1798	Acclamation	December 20, 1798 – November 26, 1829		J. Adams*
10		Alfred Moore	Iredell	3rd Attorney General of North Carolina (1782-1791)	December 9, 1799	Acclamation	December 10, 1799 – January 26, 1804
11		William Johnson	Moore	Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1798-1800)	March 24, 1804	Acclamation	May 7, 1804 – August 4, 1834		Jefferson
12		Henry Brockholst Livingston	Paterson	Justice of the New York Supreme Court (1802-1807)	December 17, 1806	Acclamation	January 20, 1807 – March 18, 1823
13		Thomas Todd	(new seat)	Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals (1806-1807)	March 2, 1807	Acclamation	March 3, 1807 – February 7, 1826
14		Gabriel Duvall	Chase	U.S. Representative for Maryland's 2nd (1794-1796)	November 18, 1811	Acclamation	November 23, 1811 – January 12, 1835		Madison
15		Joseph Story	Cushing	U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 2nd (1808-1809)	November 18, 1811	Acclamation	February 3, 1812 – September 10, 1845
16		Smith Thompson	Livingston	6th United States Secretary of the Navy (1819-1823)	December 9, 1823	Acclamation	September 1, 1823 – December 18, 1843		Monroe
17		Robert Trimble	Todd	Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky (1817-1826)	May 9, 1826	25-5	May 9, 1826 – August 25, 1828		J.Q. Adams
18		John McLean	Trimble	6th United States Postmaster General (1823-1829)	March 7, 1829	Acclamation	March 7, 1829 – April 4, 1861		Jackson*
19		Henry Baldwin	Washington	U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 14th (1817-1822)	January 6, 1830	41-2	January 6, 1830 – April 21, 1844
20		James Moore Wayne	Johnson	U.S. Representative for Georgia's at-large (1829-1835)	January 9, 1835	Acclamation	January 14, 1835 – July 5, 1867
21		Philip Pendleton Barbour	Duvall	Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (1830-1836)	March 15, 1836	30-11	March 15, 1836 – February 25, 1841
22		John Catron	(new seat)	Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals (1824-1834)	March 8, 1837	28-15	March 8, 1837 – May 30, 1865
23		John McKinley	(new seat)	United States Senator from Alabama (1826-1831, 1837)	September 25, 1837	Acclamation	April 22, 1837 – July 19, 1852		Van Buren
24		Peter Vivian Daniel	Barbour	Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (1836-1841)	March 2, 1841	25-5	March 3, 1841 – May 31, 1860
25		Samuel Nelson	Thompson	Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court (1831-1845)	February 14, 1845	Acclamation	February 14, 1845 – November 28, 1872		Tyler
26		Levi Woodbury	Story	13th United States Secretary of the Treasury (1834-1841)	January 31, 1846	Acclamation	September 20, 1845 – September 4, 1851		Polk
27		Robert Cooper Grier	Baldwin	Judge for the Pennsylvania state District Court for Allegheny County (1833-1846)	August 4, 1846	Acclamation	August 4, 1846 – January 31, 1870
28		Benjamin Robbins Curtis	Woodbury	Massachusetts State Representative	December 20, 1851	Acclamation	September 22, 1851 – September 30, 1857		Filmore
29		John Archibald Campbell	McKinley	Alabama State Representative	March 22, 1853	Acclamation	March 23, 1853 – April 30, 1861		Pierce
30		Nathan Clifford	Curtis	19th United States Attorney General (1846-1848)	January 12, 1858	26-23	January 12, 1858 – July 25, 1881		Buchanan
31		Noah Haynes Swayne	McLean	U.S. Attorney for the District of Ohio (1830-1834)	January 24, 1862	38-1	January 24, 1862 – January 24, 1881		Lincoln*
32		Samuel Freeman Miller	Daniel	Lawyer	July 16, 1862	Acclamation	July 16, 1862 – October 13, 1890
33		David Davis	Campbell	Judge of the Illinois 3rd Circuit Court (1848-1862)	December 8, 1862	Acclamation	October 17, 1862 – March 3, 1877
34		Stephen Johnson Field	(new seat)	5th Chief Justice of California (1859-1863)	March 10, 1863	Acclamation	March 10, 1863 – December 1, 1897
35		William Strong	Grier	U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 9th (1847-1851)	February 18, 1870		February 18, 1870 – December 14, 1880		Grant*
36		Joseph Philo Bradley	(new seat)	Lawyer	March 21, 1870	46-9	March 21, 1870 – January 22, 1892
37		Ward Hunt	Nelson	Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1868-1872)	December 11, 1872	Acclamation	December 11, 1872 – January 27, 1882
38		John Marshall Harlan	Davis	14th Attorney General of Kentucky (1863-1867)	November 29, 1877	Acclamation	November 29, 1877 – October 14, 1911		Hayes
39		William Burnham Woods	Strong	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1869-1880)	December 21, 1880	39-8	December 21, 1880 – May 14, 1887
40		Stanley Matthews	Swayne	United States Senator from Ohio (1877-1879)	May 12, 1881	24-23	May 12, 1881 – March 22, 1889		Garfield
41		Horace Gray	Clifford	Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1873-1881)	December 20, 1881	51-5	December 20, 1881 – September 15, 1902		Arthur
42		Samuel Blatchford	Hunt	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1878-1882)	March 22, 1882	Acclamation	March 22, 1882 – July 7, 1893
43		Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II	Woods	16th United States Secretary of the Interior (1885-1888)	January 16, 1888	32-28	January 16, 1888 – January 23, 1893		Cleveland*
44		David Josiah Brewer	Matthews	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1884-1889)	December 18, 1889	53-11	December 18, 1889 – March 28, 1910		B. Harrison
45		Henry Billings Brown	Miller	Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (1875-1890)	December 29, 1890	Acclamation	December 29, 1890 – May 28, 1906
46		George Shiras, Jr.	Bradley	Lawyer	July 26, 1892	Acclamation	July 26, 1892 – February 23, 1903
47		Howell Edmunds Jackson	Lamar	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1891-1893)	February 18, 1893	Acclamation	February 18, 1893 – August 8, 1895
48		Edward Douglass White	Blatchford	United States Senator from Louisiana (1891-1894)	February 19, 1894	Acclamation	February 19, 1894 – December 18, 1910		Cleveland
49		Rufus Wheeler Peckham	Jackson	Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals	December 9, 1895	Acclamation	December 9, 1895 – October 24, 1909
50		Joseph McKenna	Field	42nd United States Attorney General (1897-1898)	January 21, 1898	Acclamation	January 21, 1898 – January 5, 1925		McKinley
51		Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.	Gray	Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1899-1902)	December 4, 1902	Acclamation	December 4, 1902 – January 12, 1932		T. Roosevelt
52		William R. Day	Shiras	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1899-1903)	February 23, 1903	Acclamation	February 23, 1903 – November 13, 1922
53		William Henry Moody	Brown	45th United States Attorney General (1904-1906)	December 12, 1906	Acclamation	December 12, 1906 – November 20, 1910
54		Horace Harmon Lurton	Peckham	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1893-1909)	December 20, 1909	Acclamation	December 20, 1909 – July 12, 1914		Taft*
55		Charles Evans Hughes	Brewer	36th Governor of New York (1907-1910)	May 2, 1910	Acclamation	October 10, 1910 – June 10, 1916
56		Willis Van Devanter	White	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1903-1910)	December 15, 1910	Acclamation	December 16, 1910 – June 2, 1937
57		Joseph Rucker Lamar	Moody	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia (1901-1905)	December 15, 1910	Acclamation	December 17, 1910 – January 2, 1916
58		Mahlon Pitney	Harlan	U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 4th (1895-1899)	March 13, 1912	50-26	March 13, 1912 – December 31, 1922
59		James Clark McReynolds	Lurton	48th United States Attorney General (1913-1914)	August 29, 1914	44-6	August 29, 1914 – January 31, 1941		Wilson
60		Louis Brandeis	Lamar	Lawyer	June 1, 1916	47-22	June 1, 1916 – February 13, 1939
61		John Hessin Clarke	Hughes	Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (1914-1916)	July 24, 1916	Acclamation	July 24, 1916 – September 5, 1922
62		George Sutherland	Clarke	United States Senator from Utah (1905-1917)	September 5, 1922	Acclamation	September 5, 1922 – January 17, 1938		Harding*
63		Pierce Butler	Day	President of the Minnesota State Bar Association	December 21, 1922	61-8	December 21, 1922 – November 16, 1939
64		Edward Terry Sanford	Pitney	Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (1908-1923)	January 29, 1923	Acclamation	January 29, 1923 – March 8, 1930
65		Harlan F. Stone	McKenna	52nd United States Attorney General (1924-1925)	February 5, 1925	71-6	February 5, 1925 – July 3, 1941		Coolidge
66		Owen Josephus Roberts	Sanford	Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia	May 20, 1930	Acclamation	May 20, 1930 – July 31, 1945		Hoover*
67		Benjamin N. Cardozo	Holmes	Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1927-1932)	February 24, 1932	Acclamation	March 2, 1932 – July 9, 1938
68		Hugo Black	Van Devanter	United States Senator from Alabama (1927-1937)	August 17, 1937	63-16	August 18, 1937 – September 17, 1971		F.D. Roosevelt*
69		Stanley Forman Reed	Sutherland	22nd United States Solicitor General (1935-1938)	January 25, 1938	Acclamation	January 27, 1938 – February 25, 1957
70		Felix Frankfurter	Cardozo	Chair of Harvard Law School	January 17, 1939	Acclamation	January 20, 1939 – August 28, 1962
71		William O. Douglas	Brandeis	3rd Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1937-1939)	April 4, 1939	62-4	April 15, 1939 – November 12, 1975
72		Frank Murphy	Butler	56th United States Attorney General (1939-1940)	January 16, 1940	Acclamation	January 18, 1940 – July 19, 1949
73		James F. Byrnes	McReynolds	United States Senator from South Carolina (1931-1941)	June 12, 1941	Acclamation	July 8, 1941 – October 3, 1942
74		Robert H. Jackson	Stone	57th United States Attorney General (1940-1941)	July 7, 1941	Acclamation	July 11, 1941 – October 9, 1954
75		Wiley Blount Rutledge	Byrnes	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit	February 8, 1943	Acclamation	February 11, 1943 – September 10, 1949
76		Harold Hitz Burton	Roberts	United States Senator from Ohio (1944-1945)	September 19, 1945	Acclamation	September 22, 1945 – October 13, 1958		Truman*
77		Tom C. Clark	Murphy	59th Attorney General of the United States (1945-1949)	August 18, 1949	73-8	August 19, 1949 – June 12, 1967
78		Sherman Minton	Rutledge	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1941-1949)	October 4, 1949	48-16	October 12, 1949 – October 15, 1956
79		John Marshall Harlan II	Jackson	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1954-1955)	March 16, 1955	71-11	March 17, 1955 – September 23, 1971		Eisenhower*
80		William J. Brennan	Minton	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey (1951-1956)	March 19, 1957	Acclamation	October 15, 1956 – July 20, 1990
81		Charles Evans Whittaker	Reed	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1956-1957)	March 19, 1957	Acclamation	March 22, 1957 – March 31, 1962
82		Potter Stewart	Burton	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1954-1958)	May 5, 1959	70-17	October 14, 1958 – July 3, 1981
83		Byron White	Whittaker	4th United States Deputy Attorney General (1961-1962)	April 11, 1962	Acclamation	April 16, 1962 – June 28, 1993		Kennedy
84		Arthur Goldberg	Frankfurter	9th United States Secretary of Labor (1961-1962)	September 25, 1962	Acclamation	September 28, 1962 – July 26, 1965
85		Abe Fortas	Goldberg	United States Under Secretary of the Interior	August 11, 1965	Acclamation	October 4, 1965 – May 14, 1969		L. Johnson
86		Thurgood Marshall	Clark	32nd United States Solicitor General (1965-1967)	August 30, 1967	69-11	October 2, 1967 – October 1, 1991
87		Harry Blackmun	Fortas	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1959-1970)	May 12, 1970	94-0	June 9, 1970 – August 3, 1994		Nixon*
88		Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.	Black	President of the American Bar Association (1964-1965)	December 6, 1971	89-1	January 7, 1972 – June 26, 1987
89		William Rehnquist	Harlan	United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (1969-1971)	December 10, 1971	68-26	January 7, 1972 – September 26, 1986
90		John Paul Stevens	Douglas	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1970-1975)	December 17, 1975	98-0	December 19, 1975 – June 29, 2010		Ford
91		Sandra Day O'Connor	Stewart	Judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals (1979-1981)	September 21, 1981	99-0	September 25, 1981 – January 31, 2006		Reagan*
92		Antonin Scalia	Rehnquist	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1982-1986)	September 17, 1986	98-0	September 26, 1986 – February 13, 2016
93		Anthony Kennedy	Powell	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1975-1988)	February 3, 1988	97-0	February 18, 1988 – Incumbent
94		David Souter	Brennan	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990)	October 2, 1990	90-9	October 9, 1990 – June 29, 2009		G.H.W. Bush
95		Clarence Thomas	Marshall	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990-1991)	October 15, 1991	52-48	October 23, 1991 – Incumbent
96		Ruth Bader Ginsburg	White	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1980-1993)	August 3, 1993	96-3	August 10, 1993 – Incumbent		Clinton
97		Stephen Breyer	Blackmun	Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990-1994)	July 29, 1994	87-9	August 3, 1994 – Incumbent
98		Samuel Alito	O'Connor	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1990-2006)	January 31, 2006	58-42	January 31, 2006 – Incumbent		G.W. Bush*
99		Sonia Sotomayor	Souter	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1998-2009)	August 6, 2009	68-31	August 8, 2009 – Incumbent		Obama
100		Elena Kagan	Stevens	45th Solicitor General of the United States (2009-2010)	August 5, 2010	63-37	August 7, 2010 – Present
Incumbents are highlighted in this color
Recess appointments are highlighted in this color
Denotes justice was impeached, but not convicted. I
* Also appointed one Chief Justice.
*** Also appointed three Chief Justices.
Reference:[5]

See also

• Associate Justice
• Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by seat

References

1. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=002/llac002.db&recNum=481
2. Joan Biskupic, Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 101.
3. 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.
4. Mears, Bill (2014-06-20). "Supreme Court justices: They do OK financially". CNN. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
5. "U.S. Senate: Supreme Court Nominations: 1789-Present". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-17.

Further reading

• Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
• Christensen, George A. (1983) Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices, Yearbook. Supreme Court Historical Society.
• Christensen, George A., Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited, Journal of Supreme Court History, Volume 33 Issue 1, Pages 17 – 41 (19 February 2008), University of Alabama.
• Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books). ISBN 1-56802-126-7.
• Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L., eds. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0-7910-1377-4.
• Hall, Kermit L., ed. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505835-6.
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0-87187-554-3.
• Toobin, Jeffrey (2008). The Nine. Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. (1st ed.). New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-1-4000-9679-4.
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. p. 590. ISBN 0-8153-1176-1.

External links

• Historic collection of Supreme Court decisions and biographies indexed by judge name
• Members of the Supreme Court of the United States from the Court's website.