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Supreme Court

The Supreme Court, which leads the judicial branch of the United States federal government, is the only court established by the U.S. Constitution. All additional federal courts are created by Congress. The Court is presided over by nine justices consisting of one Chief Justice and eight Associate Judges which are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Supreme Court meets in Washington D.C. during terms that last from the beginning of October to June or July of each year.

Original and Appellate Jurisdiction

Both original and appellate jurisdiction is held by the Supreme Court. The Court’s appellate jurisdiction accounts for the majority of its cases while original jurisdiction has a more focused definition. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution states that the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction: “In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be party…”

Appellate jurisdiction gives the Supreme Court the ability to review and change decisions made by lower courts in the event of an appeal. The Supreme Court may review most decisions of federal courts along with decisions of state courts where questions of constitutionality or statutory law are involved. However, because the finders of fact in cases of appellate jurisdiction are judges and juries of the lower courts, the Supreme Court can only decide issues of law and not fact.

Justices

All Supreme Court Justices serve during “good behavior”, which means that they essentially serve for life, only to be removed by resignation, impeachment or subsequent conviction.

Chief Justice

John G. Roberts, JR.

Roberts, 17th Chief Justice of the United States, joined the Supreme Court on September 29th. Roberts was formerly a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Up to that time, he worked 14 years in private law practice while he held positions in Republican administrations in the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of the White House Counsel. Roberts received a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard Collage and graduated magna cum laude in 1976 from Harvard Law School.

Associate Justices

John Paul Stevens

Stevens, the most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, joined the court in 1975. While Stevens was appointed by the Republican President, Gerald R Ford, he is commonly known as the Court’s liberal wing. Stevens achieved an A. B. in English at the University of Chicago Laboratory School and then decided to serve as an intelligence officer in the Pacific Theater in the United States Navy. He returned to Illinois to receive his J. D. in 1947 from Northwestern University School of Law.

Antonin Scalia

Scalia is known as the intellectual anchor of the Courts conservative wing. He was nominated by President Regan as Associate Justice, and took oath on September 26, 1986. Scalia has a favorable view of national power and strong executive, therefore, he can be referred to as a Hamiltonian. Scalia graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School in 1960He was a former Professor of Administrative law at the University of Chicago.

Anthony M. Kennedy

Anthony M. Kennedy is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, having been appointed in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. Due to Kennedy’s position as the Court’s swing vote in many cases, he holds special prominence in many politically charged 5-4 decisions. Mr. Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California in 1936. He received a B.A. from Stanford University and the London School of Economics. He earned his LL.B. from Harvard Law School and moved on to work in private practice in San Francisco from 1961 to 1963 and Sacramento from 1963 to 1975. Anthony Kennedy served on the board of the Federal Judicial Center from 1987 to 1988 and two committees for the Judicial Conference of the United States (the Advisory Panel of Financial Disclosure Reports and Judicial Activities and the Committee on Pacific Territories, which he chaired from 1982-1990.)

David H. Souter

David Hackett Souter is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, having been appointed by President Bush in 1990. Justice Souter brings a fairly consistent liberal vote to the Court. Mr. Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts in 1939. He is a graduate of Harvard College where he received his A.B. before moving on to Magdalen College. As a Rhodes Scholar, Mr. Souter received an A.B. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and an M.A. in 1989. He worked as an associate at Orr and Reno in Concord, New Hampshire from 1966 to 1968, during which he became an Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire. He became an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire in 1983. In 1990 Mr. Souter became a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit before being nominated to the Supreme Court.

Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas has served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court since 1991 and is the second African-American to have served next to Justice Thurgood Marshall. Thomas is known to take a conservative approach in cases before the Court. Thomas was born in the Pin Point community of Georgia near Savannah in 1948. He received an A.B. from Holy Cross College and then a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974. Mr. Thomas served as an Assistant Attorney General of Missouri from 1974 to 1977 and was an attorney with the Monsanto Company from 1977 to 1979. He then served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights from 1981 to 1982 and was the Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982 to 1990. Justice Thomas became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bush.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ginsburg was nominated by President Clinton to as Associate Justice and took oath on August 10, 1993. During much of her life, she was active in the woman’s rights movement. She was admitted into the New York Bar in 1959 and District of Colombia Bar in 1975. Before Joining the Court Ginsburg was a professor at Rutgers University School of Law, Newark School of Law, and Columbia Law School. She is considered one of the most liberal members of the Court.

Stephen G. Breyer

Breyer, generally associated with the more liberal side of the court, has served as an Associate Justice since August 3, 1994, having been nominated by President Bill Clinton. He was born in San Francisco, California in 1938. Mr. Breyer served as a law clerk to Justice Arthur Goldberg in 1964 and as a Special Assistant to the Assistant U.S. General for Antitrust from 1965 to 1967. Justice Breyer also served as an Assistant Special Prosecutor of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in 1973 and as Special Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 1974 to 1975 as well as Chief Counsel to that Committee from 1979 to 1980. He served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from 1980 to 1990. Justice Breyer received an A.B. from Stanford University, a B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School.

Samuel A. Alito, JR.

Alito is the junior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, having been confirmed by the Senate to the position on January 31 2006. Alito is known as a libertarian and has often voted with conservative members of the Court. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1950 and has served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey and Assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Samuel Alito was also appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1990. He graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1972 and earned a Juris Doctor in 1975 from Yale Law School.

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