Supreme Court of the United States

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. The Court meets in its own building in Washington, D.C. However, until 1935, the Supreme Court met in the United States Capitol.

The Roberts Court, 2020
Back row (left to right): Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. Front row (left to right): Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor

Background

There are 9 justices on the court now: one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. The most recent justice, Amy Coney Barrett, replaced Ruth Bader Ginsburg after she died. Courts 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. Many people ask the Supreme Court to decide their cases, but the court refuses most of them. For the Supreme Court to decide a case, the case must be about federal law or be about the laws of more than one state. 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. There are some cases that can start in the Supreme Court and that the Supreme Court must decide, 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 later must be approved by the United States Senate. In February 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Bryer, who if confirmed would become the first female African American supreme court justice.

The present Court

The current court is named "The Roberts Court" named after Chief Justice John Roberts.

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	67	September 29, 2005 16 years, 234 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	73	October 23, 1991 30 years, 210 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990–1991)	Marshall
	Stephen Breyer (1938-08-15) August 15, 1938 San Francisco, California	Clinton	87–9	55	83	August 3, 1994 27 years, 291 days	Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990–1994)	Blackmun
	Samuel Alito (1950-04-01) April 1, 1950 Trenton, New Jersey	G. W. Bush	58–42	55	72	January 31, 2006 16 years, 110 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	67	August 8, 2009 12 years, 286 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	62	August 7, 2010 11 years, 287 days	Solicitor General of the United States (2009–2010)	Stevens
	Neil Gorsuch (1967-08-29) August 29, 1967 Denver, Colorado	Trump	54–45	49	54	April 10, 2017 5 years, 41 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	57	October 6, 2018 3 years, 227 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	50	October 27, 2020 1 year, 206 days	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020)	Ginsburg
Source:
	Ketanji Brown Jackson (1970-09-14) September 14, 1970 Washington, D.C.	Biden	53–47	52	51	Designate Summer 2022	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (since 2021)	Breyer
Designate-Associate Justice     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	March 26, 1930	September 25, 1981	January 31, 2006	24 years, 128 days
	Anthony Kennedy (1936-07-23) July 23, 1936 Sacramento, California	Reagan	Trump	51	82	July 23, 1936	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	82	October 9, 1990	June 29, 2009	18 years, 263 days