Justices of the Supreme Court – The U.S. Constitution Online – USConstitution.net

Apr 23, 2024

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Justices of the Supreme Court

Justices of the Supreme Court are appointed for life by the president and
confirmed by the Senate. Because of the lifetime appointment, the position of
Justice is seen as a very powerful one. A Justice can sit on the bench through
several presidencies and as the Congress changes hands from one political
party to another and back again. The names of most of the Justices are less
well known than the presidents, but any student of the American system of
government should be familiar with them.

The names of Chief Justices are in bold. If an Associate Justice was
promoted to Chief Justice, that person’s name will appear twice in the list.
These Associates are also marked with an asterisk next to the End Date of their
Associate Term. Dates are in MM/DD/YYYY format. The list is presented in Start
Date order. Years in service for currently serving Justices are as of August 7,
2010.

The source for this list is a list published on
the official Supreme Court website.

Name	President	Start Date	End Date	Years
James Wilson	Washington	10/05/1789	08/21/1798	8
John Jay	Washington	10/19/1789	06/29/1795	5
William Cushing	Washington	02/02/1790	09/13/1810	20
John Rutledge	Washington	02/15/1790	03/05/1791	1
John Blair	Washington	02/02/1790	10/25/1795	5
James Iredell	Washington	05/12/1790	10/20/1799	9
Thomas Johnson	Washington	08/06/1792	01/16/1793	0
William Paterson	Washington	03/11/1793	09/09/1806	13
John Rutledge	Washington	08/12/1795	12/15/1795	0
Samuel Chase	Washington	02/04/1796	06/19/1811	15
Oliver Ellsworth	Washington	03/08/1796	12/15/1800	4
Bushrod Washington	Adams, J.	02/04/1799	11/26/1829	30
Alfred Moore	Adams, J.	04/21/1800	01/26/1804	3
John Marshall	Adams, J.	02/04/1801	07/06/1835	34
William Johnson	Jefferson	05/07/1804	08/04/1834	30
Henry Brockholst Livingston	Jefferson	01/20/1807	03/18/1823	16
Thomas Todd	Jefferson	05/04/1807	02/07/1826	18
Gabriel Duvall	Madison	11/23/1811	01/14/1835	23
Joseph Story	Madison	02/03/1812	09/10/1845	33
Smith Thompson	Monroe	09/01/1823	12/18/1843	20
Robert Trimble	Adams, J.Q.	06/16/1826	08/25/1828	2
John McLean	Jackson	01/11/1830	04/04/1861	31
Henry Baldwin	Jackson	01/18/1830	04/21/1844	14
James Moore Wayne	Jackson	01/14/1835	07/05/1867	32
Roger Brooke Taney	Jackson	03/28/1836	10/12/1864	28
Philip Pendleton Barbour	Jackson	05/12/1836	02/25/1841	4
John Catron	Jackson	05/01/1837	05/30/1865	28
John McKinley	Van Buren	01/09/1838	07/19/1852	14
Peter Vivian Daniel	Van Buren	01/10/1842	05/31/1860	18
Samuel Nelson	Tyler	02/27/1845	11/28/1872	27
Levi Woodbury	Polk	09/23/1845	09/04/1851	5
Robert Cooper Grier	Polk	08/10/1846	01/31/1870	23
Benjamin Robbins Curtis	Fillmore	10/10/1851	09/30/1857	5
John Archibald Campbell	Pierce	04/11/1853	04/30/1861	8
Nathan Clifford	Buchanan	01/21/1858	07/25/1881	28
Noah Haynes Swayne	Lincoln	01/27/1862	01/24/1881	18
Samuel Freeman Miller	Lincoln	07/21/1862	10/13/1890	28
David Davis	Lincoln	12/10/1862	03/04/1877	14
Stephen Johnson Field	Lincoln	05/20/1863	12/01/1897	34
Salmon Portland Chase	Lincoln	12/15/1864	05/07/1873	8
William Strong	Grant	03/14/1870	12/14/1880	10
Joseph P. Bradley	Grant	03/23/1870	01/22/1892	21
Ward Hunt	Grant	01/09/1873	01/27/1882	9
Morrisson Remick Waite	Grant	03/04/1874	03/23/1888	14
John Marshall Harlan	Hayes	12/10/1877	10/14/1911	33
William Burnham Woods	Hayes	01/05/1881	05/14/1887	6
Stanley Matthews	Garfield	05/17/1881	03/22/1889	7
Horace Gray	Arthur	01/09/1882	09/15/1902	20
Samuel Blatchford	Arthur	04/03/1882	07/07/1893	11
Lucius Quintus C. Lamar	Cleveland	01/18/1888	01/23/1893	5
Melville Weston Fuller	Cleveland	10/08/1888	07/04/1910	21
David Josiah Brewer	Harrison	01/06/1890	03/28/1910	20
Henry Billings Brown	Harrison	01/05/1891	05/28/1906	15
George Shiras, Jr.	Harrison	10/10/1892	02/23/1903	10
Howell Edmunds Jackson	Harrison	04/04/1893	08/08/1895	2
Edward Douglass White	Cleveland	03/12/1894	*12/18/1910	16
Rufus Wheeler Peckham	Cleveland	01/06/1896	10/24/1909	13
Joseph McKenna	McKinley	01/26/1898	01/05/1925	26
Oliver Wendell Holmes	Roosevelt, T.	12/08/1902	01/12/1932	29
William Rufus Day	Roosevelt, T.	03/02/1903	11/13/1922	19
William Henry Moody	Roosevelt, T.	12/17/1906	11/20/1910	3
Horace Harmon Lurton	Taft	01/03/1910	07/12/1914	4
Charles Evans Hughes	Taft	10/10/1910	06/10/1916	5
Edward Douglass White	Taft	12/19/1910	05/19/1921	10
Wilis Van Devanter	Taft	01/03/1911	06/02/1937	26
Joseph Rucker Lamar	Taft	01/03/1911	01/02/1916	4
Mahlon Pitney	Taft	03/18/1912	12/31/1922	10
James Clark McReynolds	Wilson	10/12/1914	01/31/1941	26
Louis Dembitz Brandeis	Wilson	06/05/1916	02/13/1939	22
John Hessin Clarke	Wilson	10/09/1916	09/18/1922	5
William Howard Taft	Harding	07/11/1921	02/03/1930	8
George Sutherland	Harding	10/02/1922	01/17/1938	15
Pierce Butler	Harding	01/02/1923	11/16/1939	16
Edward Terry Sanford	Harding	02/19/1923	03/08/1930	7
Harlan Fiske Stone	Coolidge	03/02/1925	*07/02/1941	16
Charles Evans Hughes	Hoover	02/24/1930	06/30/1941	11
Owen Josephus Roberts	Hoover	06/02/1930	07/31/1945	15
Benjamin Nathan Cardoza	Hoover	03/14/1932	07/09/1938	6
Hugo Lafayette Black	Roosevelt, F.	08/19/1937	09/17/1971	34
Stanley Forman Reed	Roosevelt, F.	01/31/1938	02/25/1957	19
Felix Frankfurter	Roosevelt, F.	01/30/1939	08/28/1962	23
William Orville Douglas	Roosevelt, F.	04/17/1939	11/12/1975	36
Frank Murphy	Roosevelt, F.	02/05/1940	07/19/1949	9
Harlan Fiske Stone	Roosevelt, F.	07/03/1941	04/22/1946	4
James Francis Byrnes	Roosevelt, F.	07/08/1941	10/03/1942	1
Robert Houghwout Jackson	Roosevelt, F.	07/11/1941	10/09/1954	13
Wiley Blount Rutledge	Roosevelt, F.	02/15/1943	09/10/1949	6
Harold Hitz Burton	Truman	10/01/1945	10/13/1958	13
Fred Moore Vinson	Truman	06/24/1946	09/08/1953	7
Tom Campbell Clark	Truman	08/24/1949	06/12/1967	17
Sherman Minton	Truman	10/12/1949	10/15/1956	7
Earl Warren	Eisenhower	10/05/1953	06/23/1969	15
John Marshall Harlan	Eisenhower	03/28/1955	09/23/1971	16
William J. Brennan, Jr.	Eisenhower	10/16/1956	07/20/1990	33
Charles Evans Whittaker	Eisenhower	03/25/1957	03/31/1962	5
Potter Stewart	Eisenhower	10/14/1958	07/03/1981	22
Byron Raymond White	Kennedy	04/16/1962	06/28/1993	31
Arthur Joseph Goldberg	Kennedy	10/01/1962	07/25/1965	2
Abe Fortas	Johnson, L.	10/04/1965	05/14/1969	3
Thurgood Marshall	Johnson, L.	10/02/1967	10/01/1991	23
Warren Earl Burger	Nixon	06/23/1969	09/26/1986	17
Harry A. Blackmun	Nixon	06/09/1970	08/03/1994	24
Lewis F. Powell, Jr.	Nixon	01/07/1972	06/26/1987	15
William H. Rehnquist	Nixon	01/07/1972	*09/26/1986	14
John Paul Stevens	Ford	12/19/1975	06/28/2010	34
Sandra Day O’Connor	Reagan	09/25/1981	01/31/2006	24
William H. Rehnquist	Reagan	09/26/1986	09/03/2005	18
Antonin Scalia	Reagan	09/26/1986	—	23
Anthony M. Kennedy	Reagan	02/18/1988	—	22
David H. Souter	Bush, G.H.W.	10/09/1990	06/29/2009	18
Clarence Thomas	Bush, G.H.W.	10/23/1991	—	18
Ruth Bader Ginsburg	Clinton	08/10/1993	—	16
Stephen G. Breyer	Clinton	08/03/1994	—	16
John G. Roberts, Jr.	Bush, G.W.	09/29/2005	—	4
Samuel A. Alito, Jr.	Bush, G.W.	01/31/2006	—	4
Sonia Sotomayor	Obama	08/06/2009	—	1
Elena Kagan	Obama	08/07/2010	—	0

Notes:
Total time on the bench for Edward Douglass White: 27 years
Total time on the bench for Harlan Fiske Stone: 21 years
Total time on the bench for William H. Rehnquist, Jr.: 33 years

Last Modified: 7 Aug 2010

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