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.

Background

There are 9 justices on the court now: one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. Courts (a set of all justices of the court while one Chief Justice is serving) are unofficially named for the Chief Justice; the current Court is called the "Roberts Court" after Chief Justice John Roberts.

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 must be about: federal law, the Constitution of the United States, disagreements between states or their residents, or another court's decision that differs from what the Supreme Court has decided on a similar case. Cases must first be decided by a federal district court and a federal court of appeals or by a state supreme court. Even 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.

The justices serve for life unless they want to retire earlier or are impeached. If a justice retires, he or she can still be asked to serve as a judge on a federal Court of Appeals. New justices are nominated (picked) by the President of the United States, and then must be approved by the United States Senate.

The most recent justice to be chosen is Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was nominated by President Joe Biden in February 2022, to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. After the Senate approved her, Jackson became the first female African American justice.

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 (1955-01-27) January 27, 1955 Buffalo, New York	G. W. Bush	78–22	50	68	September 29, 2005 17 years, 238 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2003–2005)	Rehnquist
	Clarence Thomas (1948-06-23) June 23, 1948 Pin Point, Georgia	G. H. W. Bush	52–48	43	74	October 23, 1991 31 years, 214 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990–1991)	Marshall
	Samuel Alito (1950-04-01) April 1, 1950 Trenton, New Jersey	G. W. Bush	58–42	55	73	January 31, 2006 17 years, 114 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1990–2006)	O'Connor
	Sonia Sotomayor (1954-06-25) June 25, 1954 The Bronx, New York	Obama	68–31	55	68	August 8, 2009 13 years, 290 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1998–2009)	Souter
	Elena Kagan (1960-04-28) April 28, 1960 Manhattan, New York	Obama	63–37	50	63	August 7, 2010 12 years, 291 days	Solicitor General of the United States (2009–2010)	Stevens
	Neil Gorsuch (1967-08-29) August 29, 1967 Denver, Colorado	Trump	54–45	49	55	April 10, 2017 6 years, 45 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2006–2017)	Scalia
	Brett Kavanaugh (1965-02-12) February 12, 1965 Washington, D.C.	Trump	50–48	53	58	October 6, 2018 4 years, 231 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2006–2018)	Kennedy
	Amy Coney Barrett (1972-01-28) January 28, 1972 New Orleans, Louisiana	Trump	52–48	48	51	October 27, 2020 2 years, 210 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020)	Ginsburg
	Ketanji Brown Jackson (1970-09-14) September 14, 1970 Washington, D.C.	Biden	53–47	52	52	June 30, 2022 329 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
				Start	Retirement	Present	Start date	End date	Length
	Sandra Day O'Connor (1930-03-26)March 26, 1930 El Paso, Texas	Reagan	G. W. Bush	51	75	93	September 25, 1981	January 31, 2006	24 years, 128 days
	Anthony Kennedy (1936-07-23)July 23, 1936 Sacramento, California	Reagan	Trump	51	82	86	February 18, 1988	July 31, 2018	30 years, 163 days
	David Souter (1939-09-17)September 17, 1939 Melrose, Massachusetts	G. H. W. Bush	Obama	51	69	83	October 9, 1990	June 29, 2009	18 years, 263 days
	Stephen Breyer (1938-08-15)August 15, 1938 San Francisco, California	Clinton	Biden	55	83	84	August 3, 1994	June 30, 2022	27 years, 319 days