To become a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, an individual must be nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the U.S. Senate, with at least half of that body approving in the affirmative. Generally, a justice's qualifications are judged by the President and, most visibly, by a Senate hearing. There is no definitive qualification of age or experience that is a standard to be met; instead, there is a much more subjective process taken by the Senate, occasionally resulting in a sometimes controversial defeat of judicial nominees.

The following table lists the terms of all Supreme Court justices since 1789 placed in the order in which the justices took the judicial oath of office and thereby started their term of office. Persons such as Robert H. Harrison or Edwin Stanton, who were appointed to the court but never served, are not listed.

• The names of Justices who are active (as of Justice Samuel Alito's accession to the Court on January 31, 2006) are in bold.
• Justices who received a recess appointment to the Supreme Court have an asterisk(*) following their name. All but one of these recess appointments went on to be confirmed by the Senate during the following session of Congress.
• John Rutledge and Charles Evans Hughes each resigned from the Supreme Court and were later reappointed as Chief Justice. Thus, they are listed twice below, once for each term on the Supreme Court.

Notes

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References

• • source for term of senior service, reason service terminated, and seat information
• • source for state, appointer, and term of active service
• • source for laws about the Acting Chief Justice

External links

• Decisions and biography by Justice
• Thorough Supreme Court site by Northwestern University
• Biographies of Supreme Court Justices at michaelariens.com
• The Supreme Court Historical Society

United States Supreme Court justices | Lists of judges

Liste der Richter am Supreme Court of the United States | Liste des juges de la Cour suprême des États-Unis d'Amérique