John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States-Nominated by President George W. Bush, assumed his seat September 29, 2005.
Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice-Nominated by President George H. Bush, assumed his seat October 23, 1991.
Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice-Nominated by President Bill Clinton, assumed his seat August 3, 1994.
Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice-Nominated by President George W. Bush, assumed his seat January 31, 2006.
Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice-Nominated by President Barack Obama, assumed her seat August 8, 2009.
Elena Kagan, Associate Justice-Nominated by President Barack Obama, assumed her seat August 7, 2010.
Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice-Nominated by President Donald J. Trump, assumed his seat April 10, 2017.
Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice-Nominated by President Donald J. Trump, assumed his seat October 6, 2018.
Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice-Nominated by President Donald J. Trump, assumed her seat October 27, 2020.
Sandra Day O'Connor (Retired), Associate Justice-Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, assumed her seat September 25, 1981, retired from the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006.
Anthony M. Kennedy (Retired), Associate Justice-Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, assumed his seat February 18, 1988, retired from the Supreme Court on July 31, 2018.
David H. Souter (Retired), Associate Justice-Nominated by President George H. Bush, took his seat on October 9, 1990, retired from the Supreme Court on June 29, 2009.
Link to Supreme Court Justices from 1789 to present
The Supreme Court receives about 10,000 petitions a year. The Justices use the "Rule of Four” to decide if they will take the case. If four of the nine Justices feel the case has value, they will issue a writ of certiorari. This is a legal order from the high court for the lower court to send the records of the case to them for review. When all is said and done the Supreme Court will hear about 75-85 cases a year. This tells us that most petitions are denied.
The majority of the Supreme Court’s cases today are heard on appeal from the lower courts. These cases usually come from the federal courts of appeal, but the Court does sometimes hear appeals from the state Supreme Courts as well.
The Justices of the Supreme Court are most likely to take cases that will affect the entire country, not just the individuals involved. They want to clarify legal issues that are important to as many people as possible, so they take cases that will have a large constitutional impact, or that answer important legal questions that affect the whole nation.
Justices will also take a case when the lower courts cannot agree on how to interpret the law involved, or in which different lower courts have interpreted the law differently. When the lower courts decide cases differently, it can lead to confusion.
By taking a case that involves an issue that has led to differing opinions in the lower courts, the Supreme Court creates a precedent that every court in the country has to follow. This guarantees that the laws are applied equally to all people, no matter where they live.
The Supreme Court only takes cases from state courts when the appeal involves the U.S. Constitution. Thus, the person making the appeal must show that his or her rights, under the Bill of Rights, were denied by the state, or that some error was made in the court that affected their due process rights. Because of these restrictions, most of the Supreme Court’s cases come from the lower federal courts and not from state courts.
