More You Know: Looking Back to the U.S. Supreme Court Justices

Due to the recent passing of Ruth Bader-Ginsburg yesterday, I decided to look at all the justices that have served on the U.S. Supreme Court.  So far 14 Justices have served 30 plus years with longest length served being 36 years and 221 day with William O. Douglas from 1939 to 1975.  There are five justices having served was less than two years if you count Brett Kavanaugh and the shortest length served being 138 days with John Rutledge in 1795.  Justices hold the title of either associate or chief and leave their post by resigning, retiring, or dying.  Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter are the remaining retired justices still alive. There are now eight justices with John Roberts as the chief and seven associate justices with the latest of Kavanaugh being sworn in 2018. The Justices don’t hear many cases, but most of them are heavily loaded, often dealing with human rights, expressions of freedom, and control over the self. Here is the list of justices from the earliest days to the current times and the Presidential administrations that nominated them.

“You can disagree without being disagreeable.”

-Ruth Bader-Ginsburg

John Jay as Chief Justice, John Rutledge as Chief Justice, William Cushing, James Wilson, John Blair, James Iredell, Thomas Johnson, William Paterson, Samuel Chase, and Oliver Ellsworth as Chief Justice were nominated by George Washington.

Bushrod Washington, Alfred Moore, and John Marshall as Chief Justice were nominated by John Adams.

William Johnson, Henry Brockholst Livingston, and Thomas Todd were nominated by Thomas Jefferson.

Gabriel Duvall and Joseph Story were nominated by James Madison.

Smith Thompson was nominated by James Monroe.

Robert Trimble was nominated by John Quincy Adams.

John McLean, Henry Baldwin, James Moore Wayne, Roger B. Taney as Chief Justice, Philip Pendleton Barbour, and John Catron were nominated by Andrew Jackson.

John McKinley and Peter Vivian Daniel were nominated by Martin Van Buren.

Samuel Nelson was nominated by John Tyler.

Levi Woodbury and Robert Cooper Grier were nominated by James. K. Polk.

Benjamin Robbins Curtis was nominated by Millard Fillmore.

John Archibald Campbell was nominated by Franklin Pierce.

Nathan Clifford was nominated by James Buchanan.

Noah Haynes Swayne, Samuel Freeman Miller, David Davis, Stephen Johnson Field, Salmon P. Chase as Chief Justice were nominated by Abraham Lincoln.

William Strong, Joseph P. Bradley, Ward Hunt, Morrison Waite as Chief Justice were nominated by Ulysses S. Grant.

John Marshall Harlan and William Burnham Woods were nominated by Rutherford B. Hayes.

Stanley Matthews was nominated by James A. Garfield.

Horace Gray and Samuel Blatchford were nominated by Chester A. Arthur.

Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, Melville Fuller as Chief Justice, Edward Douglas White as Chief Justice, and Rufus W. Peckham were nominated by Grover Cleveland.

David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown, George Shiras Jr., and Howell Edmunds Jackson were nominated by Benjamin Harrison.

Joseph McKenna was nominated by William McKinley.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., William R. Day, and William Henry Moody were nominated by Theodore Roosevelt.

Horace Harmon Lurton, Charles Evans Hughes, Edward Douglass White as Chief Justice, Wills Van Devanter, Joseph Rucker Lamar, Mahlon Pitney were nomiated by William Howard Taft.

James Clark McReynolds, Louis Brandeis, John Hessin Clarke were nominated by Woodrow Wilson.

William Howard Taft as Chief Justice, George Sutherland, Pierce Butler, and Edward Terry Sanford were nominated by Warren G. Harding.

Harlan F. Stone was nominated by Calvin Coolidge.

Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice, Owen Roberts, and Benjamin N. Cardozo were nominated by Herbert Hoover.

Hugo Black, Stanley Forman Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy, Harlan F. Stone as Chief Justice, James F. Byrnes, Robert H. Jackson, Wiley Blount Rutledge were nomiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Harold Hitz Burton, Fred M. Vinson as Chief Justice, Tom C. Clark, and Sherman Minton were nominated by Harry S. Truman.

Earl Warren as Chief Justice, John Marshall Harlan, William J. Brennan Jr. Charles Evans Whittaker, and Potter Stewart were nominated by Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Byron White and Arthur Goldberg were nominated by John F. Kennedy.

Abe Fortas and Thurgood Marshall were nominated by Lyndon B. Johnson.

Warren E. Burger as Chief Justice, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell Jr, and William Rehnquist were nominated by Richard Nixon.

Sandra Day O’Connor, William Rehnquist as Chief Justice, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy were nominated by Ronald Regan.

David Souter and Clarence Thomas were nominated by George H.W. Bush.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer were nominated by Bill Clinton.

John Roberts as Chief Justice and Samuel Alito were nominated by George W. Bush.

Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were nominated by Barack Obama.

Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were nominated by Donald Trump.