Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States

The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869.

Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States grants plenary power to the president to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the Senate, appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution effectively grants life tenure to associate justices, and all other federal judges, which ends only when a justice dies, retires, resigns, or is impeached and convicted.

Each Supreme Court justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it, and the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice; however, the chief justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. Furthermore, the chief justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion; otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. The chief justice also has certain administrative responsibilities that the other justices do not and is paid slightly more ($298,500 per year as of 2023, compared to $285,400 per year for an associate justice).

Associate justices have seniority in order of the date their respective commissions bear, although the chief justice is always considered to be the most senior justice. If two justices are commissioned on the same day, the elder is designated the senior justice of the two. Currently, the senior associate justice is Clarence Thomas. By tradition, when the justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court, the justices state their views in order of seniority. The senior associate justice is also tasked with carrying out the chief justice's duties when he is unable to, or if that office is vacant.

There are currently eight associate justices on the Supreme Court. The justices, ordered by seniority, are:

•  
  Clarence Thomas,
  since October 23, 1991
•  
  Samuel Alito,
  since January 31, 2006
•  
  Sonia Sotomayor,
  since August 8, 2009
•  
  Elena Kagan,
  since August 7, 2010
•  
  Neil Gorsuch,
  since April 10, 2017
•  
  Brett Kavanaugh,
  since October 6, 2018
•  
  Amy Coney Barrett,
  since October 27, 2020
•  
  Ketanji Brown Jackson,
  since June 30, 2022

An associate justice who leaves the Supreme Court after attaining the age and meeting the service requirements prescribed by federal statute (28 U.S.C. § 371) may retire rather than resign. After retirement, they keep their title, and by custom may also keep a set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, and employ law clerks. The names of retired associate justices continue to appear alongside those of the active justices in the bound volumes of Supreme Court decisions. Federal statute (28 U.S.C. § 294) provides that retired Supreme Court justices may serve—if designated and assigned by the chief justice—on panels of the U.S. courts of appeals, or on the U.S. district courts. Retired justices are not, however, authorized to take part in the consideration or decision of any cases before the Supreme Court (unlike other retired federal judges who may be permitted to do so in their former courts); neither are they known or designated as a "senior judge". When, after his retirement, William O. Douglas attempted to take a more active role than was customary, maintaining that it was his prerogative to do so because of his senior status, he was rebuffed by Chief Justice Warren Burger and admonished by the whole Court.

There are currently three living retired associate justices: David Souter, retired June 29, 2009; Anthony Kennedy, retired July 31, 2018; and Stephen Breyer, retired June 30, 2022. Souter has served on panels of the First Circuit Courts of Appeals following his retirement; Kennedy and Breyer have not performed any judicial duties since retiring.

Since the Supreme Court was established in 1789, the following 104 persons have served as an associate justice:

Associate justice			Seat	Replacing	Date confirmed (Vote)	Tenure	Appointed by	Prior position
1		John Rutledge	1st	(new seat)	September 26, 1789 (Acclamation)	February 15, 1790 – March 4, 1791 (Resigned)	George Washington	31st governor of South Carolina (1779–1782)
2		William Cushing	2nd	(new seat)	September 26, 1789 (Acclamation)	February 2, 1790 – September 13, 1810 (Died)		Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court (1777–1789)
3		James Wilson	3rd	(new seat)	September 26, 1789 (Acclamation)	October 5, 1789 – August 21, 1798 (Died)		Delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787)
4		John Blair	4th	(new seat)	September 26, 1789 (Acclamation)	February 2, 1790 – October 25, 1795 (Resigned)		Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1766–1770)
5		James Iredell	5th	(new seat)	February 10, 1790 (Acclamation)	May 12, 1790 – October 20, 1799 (Died)		2nd attorney general of North Carolina (1779–1782)
6		Thomas Johnson	1st	J. Rutledge	November 7, 1791 (Acclamation)	September 19, 1791 – January 16, 1793 (Resigned)		1st governor of Maryland (1777–1779)
7		William Paterson		T. Johnson	March 4, 1793 (Acclamation)	March 11, 1793 – September 8, 1806 (Died)		2nd governor of New Jersey (1790–1793)
8		Samuel Chase	4th	Blair	January 27, 1796 (Acclamation)	February 4, 1796 – June 19, 1811 (Died)		Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court (1791–1796)
9		Bushrod Washington	3rd	Wilson	December 20, 1798 (Acclamation)	November 9, 1798 – November 26, 1829 (Died)	John Adams	Delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)
10		Alfred Moore	5th	Iredell	December 9, 1799 (Acclamation)	April 21, 1800 – January 26, 1804 (Resigned)		3rd attorney general of North Carolina (1782–1791)
11		William Johnson	5th	Moore	March 24, 1804 (Acclamation)	May 7, 1804 – August 4, 1834 (Died)	Thomas Jefferson	Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1798–1800)
12		Henry Brockholst Livingston	1st	Paterson	December 17, 1806 (Acclamation)	January 20, 1807 – March 18, 1823 (Died)		Justice of the New York Supreme Court (1802–1807)
13		Thomas Todd	6th	(new seat)	March 2, 1807 (Acclamation)	March 4, 1807 – February 7, 1826 (Died)		Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals (1806–1807)
14		Gabriel Duvall	4th	Chase	November 18, 1811 (Acclamation)	November 23, 1811 – January 12, 1835 (Resigned)	James Madison	U.S. representative for Maryland's 2nd district (1794–1796)
15		Joseph Story	2nd	Cushing	November 18, 1811 (Acclamation)	February 3, 1812 – September 10, 1845 (Died)		U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 2nd district (1808–1809)
16		Smith Thompson	1st	Livingston	December 9, 1823 (Acclamation)	September 1, 1823 – December 18, 1843 (Died)	James Monroe	6th United States secretary of the Navy (1819–1823)
17		Robert Trimble	6th	Todd	May 9, 1826 (25–5)	June 16, 1826 – August 25, 1828 (Died)	John Quincy Adams	Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky (1817–1826)
18		John McLean		Trimble	March 7, 1829 (Acclamation)	March 12, 1829 – April 4, 1861 (Died)	Andrew Jackson	6th United States postmaster general (1823–1829)
19		Henry Baldwin	3rd	Washington	January 6, 1830 (41–2)	January 18, 1830 – April 21, 1844 (Died)		U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 14th district (1817–1822)
20		James Moore Wayne	5th	W. Johnson	January 9, 1835 (Acclamation)	January 14, 1835 – July 5, 1867 (Died) (Seat abolished)		U.S. representative for Georgia's at-large district (1829–1835)
21		Philip P. Barbour	4th	Duvall	March 15, 1836 (30–11)	May 12, 1836 – February 25, 1841 (Died)		Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (1830–1836)
22		John Catron	7th	(new seat)	March 8, 1837 (28–15)	May 1, 1837 – May 30, 1865 (Died) (Seat abolished)		Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals (1824–1834)
23		John McKinley	8th	(new seat)	September 25, 1837 (Acclamation)	January 9, 1838 – July 19, 1852 (Died)	Martin Van Buren	United States senator from Alabama (1826–1831, 1837)
24		Peter Vivian Daniel	4th	Barbour	March 2, 1841 (25–5)	January 10, 1842 – May 31, 1860 (Died)		Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (1836–1841)
25		Samuel Nelson	1st	Thompson	February 14, 1845 (Acclamation)	February 27, 1845 – November 28, 1872 (Retired)	John Tyler	Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court (1831–1845)
26		Levi Woodbury	2nd	Story	January 31, 1846 (Acclamation)	September 23, 1845 – September 4, 1851 (Died)	James K. Polk	13th United States secretary of the treasury (1834–1841)
27		Robert Cooper Grier	3rd	Baldwin	August 4, 1846 (Acclamation)	August 10, 1846 – January 31, 1870 (Retired)		Judge for the Pennsylvania state District Court for Allegheny County (1833–1846)
28		Benjamin Robbins Curtis	2nd	Woodbury	December 20, 1851 (Acclamation)	October 10, 1851 – September 30, 1857 (Resigned)	Millard Fillmore	Massachusetts state representative
29		John Archibald Campbell	8th	McKinley	March 22, 1853 (Acclamation)	April 11, 1853 – April 30, 1861 (Resigned)	Franklin Pierce	Alabama state representative
30		Nathan Clifford	2nd	Curtis	January 12, 1858 (26–23)	January 21, 1858 – July 25, 1881 (Died)	James Buchanan	19th United States attorney general (1846–1848)
31		Noah Haynes Swayne	6th	McLean	January 24, 1862 (38–1)	January 27, 1862 – January 24, 1881 (Retired)	Abraham Lincoln	U.S. attorney for the District of Ohio (1830–1834)
32		Samuel Freeman Miller	4th	Daniel	July 16, 1862 (Acclamation)	July 21, 1862 – October 13, 1890 (Died)		Lawyer, Private practice
33		David Davis	8th	Campbell	December 8, 1862 (Acclamation)	December 10, 1862 – March 3, 1877 (Resigned)		Judge of the Illinois 3rd Circuit Court (1848–1862)
34		Stephen Johnson Field	9th	(new seat)	March 10, 1863 (Acclamation)	May 20, 1863 – December 1, 1897 (Retired)		5th chief justice of California (1859–1863)
35		William Strong	3rd	Grier	February 18, 1870 (Acclamation)	March 14, 1870 – December 14, 1880 (Retired)	Ulysses S. Grant	U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 9th district (1847–1851)
36		Joseph P. Bradley	10th	(new seat)	March 21, 1870 (46–9)	March 23, 1870 – January 22, 1892 (Died)		Lawyer, Private practice
37		Ward Hunt	1st	Nelson	December 11, 1872 (Acclamation)	January 9, 1873 – January 27, 1882 (Retired)		Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1868–1872)
38		John Marshall Harlan	8th	Davis	December 10, 1877 (Acclamation)	November 29, 1877 – October 14, 1911 (Died)	Rutherford B. Hayes	14th attorney general of Kentucky (1863–1867)
39		William Burnham Woods	3rd	Strong	December 21, 1880 (39–8)	January 5, 1881 – May 14, 1887 (Died)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1869–1880)
40		Stanley Matthews	6th	Swayne	May 12, 1881 (24–23)	May 17, 1881 – March 22, 1889 (Died)	James A. Garfield	United States senator from Ohio (1877–1879)
41		Horace Gray	2nd	Clifford	December 20, 1881 (51–5)	January 9, 1882 – September 15, 1902 (Died)	Chester A. Arthur	Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1873–1881)
42		Samuel Blatchford	1st	Hunt	March 22, 1882 (Acclamation)	April 3, 1882 – July 7, 1893 (Died)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1878–1882)
43		Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II	3rd	Woods	January 16, 1888 (32–28)	January 18, 1888 – January 23, 1893 (Died)	Grover Cleveland	16th United States secretary of the interior (1885–1888)
44		David Josiah Brewer	6th	Matthews	December 18, 1889 (53–11)	January 6, 1890 – March 28, 1910 (Died)	Benjamin Harrison	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1884–1889)
45		Henry Billings Brown	4th	Miller	December 29, 1890 (Acclamation)	January 5, 1891 – May 28, 1906 (Retired)		Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (1875–1890)
46		George Shiras Jr.	10th	Bradley	July 26, 1892 (Acclamation)	October 10, 1892 – February 23, 1903 (Retired)		Lawyer, Private practice
47		Howell Edmunds Jackson	3rd	L. Lamar	February 18, 1893 (Acclamation)	March 4, 1893 – August 8, 1895 (Died)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1891–1893)
48		Edward Douglass White	1st	Blatchford	February 19, 1894 (Acclamation)	March 12, 1894 – December 18, 1910 (Continued as chief justice)	Grover Cleveland	United States senator from Louisiana (1891–1894)
49		Rufus W. Peckham	3rd	H. Jackson	December 9, 1895 (Acclamation)	January 6, 1896 – October 24, 1909 (Died)		Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
50		Joseph McKenna	9th	Field	January 21, 1898 (Acclamation)	January 26, 1898 – January 5, 1925 (Retired)	William McKinley	42nd United States attorney general (1897–1898)
51		Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.	2nd	Gray	December 4, 1902 (Acclamation)	December 8, 1902 – January 12, 1932 (Retired)	Theodore Roosevelt	Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1899–1902)
52		William R. Day	10th	Shiras	February 23, 1903 (Acclamation)	March 2, 1903 – November 13, 1922 (Retired)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1899–1903)
53		William Henry Moody	4th	Brown	December 12, 1906 (Acclamation)	December 17, 1906 – November 20, 1910 (Retired)		45th United States attorney general (1904–1906)
54		Horace Harmon Lurton	3rd	Peckham	December 20, 1909 (Acclamation)	January 3, 1910 – July 12, 1914 (Died)	William Howard Taft	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1893–1909)
55		Charles Evans Hughes	6th	Brewer	May 2, 1910 (Acclamation)	October 10, 1910 – June 10, 1916 (Resigned)		36th governor of New York (1907–1910)
56		Willis Van Devanter	1st	E. White	December 15, 1910 (Acclamation)	January 3, 1911 – June 2, 1937 (Retired)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1903–1910)
57		Joseph Rucker Lamar	4th	Moody	December 15, 1910 (Acclamation)	January 3, 1911 – January 2, 1916 (Died)		Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia (1901–1905)
58		Mahlon Pitney	8th	J. Harlan I	March 13, 1912 (50–26)	March 18, 1912 – December 31, 1922 (Resigned)		U.S. representative for New Jersey's 4th district (1895–1899)
59		James Clark McReynolds	3rd	Lurton	August 29, 1914 (44–6)	October 12, 1914 – January 31, 1941 (Retired)	Woodrow Wilson	48th United States attorney general (1913–1914)
60		Louis Brandeis	4th	J. Lamar	June 1, 1916 (47–22)	June 5, 1916 – February 13, 1939 (Retired)		Lawyer, Private practice: Brandeis Dunbar & Nutter
61		John Hessin Clarke	6th	Hughes	July 24, 1916 (Acclamation)	October 9, 1916 – September 5, 1922 (Resigned)		Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (1914–1916)
62		George Sutherland		Clarke	September 5, 1922 (Acclamation)	October 2, 1922 – January 17, 1938 (Retired)	Warren G. Harding	United States senator from Utah (1905–1917)
63		Pierce Butler	10th	Day	December 21, 1922 (61–8)	January 2, 1923 – November 16, 1939 (Died)		President of the Minnesota State Bar Association
64		Edward Terry Sanford	8th	Pitney	January 29, 1923 (Acclamation)	February 19, 1923 – March 8, 1930 (Died)		Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (1908–1923)
65		Harlan F. Stone	9th	McKenna	February 5, 1925 (71–6)	March 2, 1925 – July 3, 1941 (Continued as chief justice)	Calvin Coolidge	52nd United States attorney general (1924–1925)
66		Owen Roberts	8th	Sanford	May 20, 1930 (Acclamation)	June 2, 1930 – July 31, 1945 (Resigned)	Herbert Hoover	Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia
67		Benjamin N. Cardozo	2nd	Holmes	February 24, 1932 (Acclamation)	March 14, 1932 – July 9, 1938 (Died)		Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1927–1932)
68		Hugo Black	1st	Van Devanter	August 17, 1937 (63–16)	August 19, 1937 – September 17, 1971 (Retired)	Franklin D. Roosevelt	United States senator from Alabama (1927–1937)
69		Stanley Forman Reed	6th	Sutherland	January 25, 1938 (Acclamation)	January 31, 1938 – February 25, 1957 (Retired)		22nd United States solicitor general (1935–1938)
70		Felix Frankfurter	2nd	Cardozo	January 17, 1939 (Acclamation)	January 30, 1939 – August 28, 1962 (Retired)		Chairman of Harvard Law School
71		William O. Douglas	4th	Brandeis	April 4, 1939 (62–4)	April 17, 1939 – November 12, 1975 (Retired)		3rd chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1937–1939)
72		Frank Murphy	10th	Butler	January 16, 1940 (Acclamation)	February 5, 1940 – July 19, 1949 (Died)		56th United States attorney general (1939–1940)
73		James F. Byrnes	3rd	McReynolds	June 12, 1941 (Acclamation)	July 8, 1941 – October 3, 1942 (Resigned)		United States senator from South Carolina (1931–1941)
74		Robert H. Jackson	9th	Stone	July 7, 1941 (Acclamation)	July 11, 1941 – October 9, 1954 (Died)		57th United States attorney general (1940–1941)
75		Wiley Blount Rutledge	3rd	Byrnes	February 8, 1943 (Acclamation)	February 15, 1943 – September 10, 1949 (Died)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1939–1943)
76		Harold Hitz Burton	8th	Roberts	September 19, 1945 (Acclamation)	October 1, 1945 – October 13, 1958 (Retired)	Harry S. Truman	United States senator from Ohio (1941–1945)
77		Tom C. Clark	10th	Murphy	August 18, 1949 (73–8)	August 24, 1949 – June 12, 1967 (Retired)		59th United States attorney general (1945–1949)
78		Sherman Minton	3rd	W. Rutledge	October 12, 1949 (48–16)	October 12, 1949 – October 15, 1956 (Retired)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1941–1949)
79		John Marshall Harlan	9th	R. Jackson	March 16, 1955 (71–11)	March 28, 1955 – September 23, 1971 (Retired)	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1954–1955)
80		William J. Brennan Jr.	3rd	Minton	March 19, 1957 (Acclamation)	October 15, 1956 – July 20, 1990 (Retired)		Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey (1951–1956)
81		Charles Evans Whittaker	6th	Reed	March 19, 1957 (Acclamation)	March 25, 1957 – March 31, 1962 (Retired)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1956–1957)
82		Potter Stewart	8th	Burton	May 5, 1959 (70–17)	October 14, 1958 – July 3, 1981 (Retired)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1954–1958)
83		Byron White	6th	Whittaker	April 11, 1962 (Acclamation)	April 16, 1962 – June 28, 1993 (Retired)	John F. Kennedy	4th United States deputy attorney general (1961–1962)
84		Arthur Goldberg	2nd	Frankfurter	September 25, 1962 (Acclamation)	October 1, 1962 – July 26, 1965 (Resigned)		9th United States secretary of labor (1961–1962)
85		Abe Fortas		Goldberg	August 11, 1965 (Acclamation)	October 4, 1965 – May 14, 1969 (Resigned)	Lyndon B. Johnson	United States under secretary of the interior
86		Thurgood Marshall	10th	Clark	August 30, 1967 (69–11)	October 2, 1967 – October 1, 1991 (Retired)		32nd solicitor general of the United States (1965–1967)
87		Harry Blackmun	2nd	Fortas	May 12, 1970 (94–0)	June 9, 1970 – August 3, 1994 (Retired)	Richard Nixon	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1959–1970)
88		Lewis F. Powell Jr.	1st	Black	December 6, 1971 (89–1)	January 7, 1972 – June 26, 1987 (Retired)		President of the American Bar Association (1964–1965)
89		William Rehnquist	9th	J. Harlan II	December 10, 1971 (68–26)	January 7, 1972 – September 26, 1986 (Continued as chief justice)		United States assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel (1969–1971)
90		John Paul Stevens	4th	Douglas	December 17, 1975 (98–0)	December 19, 1975 – June 29, 2010 (Retired)	Gerald Ford	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1970–1975)
91		Sandra Day O'Connor	8th	Stewart	September 21, 1981 (99–0)	September 25, 1981 – January 31, 2006 (Retired)	Ronald Reagan	Judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals (1979–1981)
92		Antonin Scalia	9th	Rehnquist	September 17, 1986 (98–0)	September 26, 1986 – February 13, 2016 (Died)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1982–1986)
93		Anthony Kennedy	1st	Powell	February 3, 1988 (97–0)	February 18, 1988 – July 31, 2018 (Retired)		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1975–1988)
94		David Souter	3rd	Brennan	October 2, 1990 (90–9)	October 9, 1990 – June 29, 2009 (Retired)	George H. W. Bush	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990)
95		Clarence Thomas	10th	Marshall	October 15, 1991 (52–48)	October 23, 1991 – Incumbent		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990–1991)
96		Ruth Bader Ginsburg	6th	B. White	August 3, 1993 (96–3)	August 10, 1993 – September 18, 2020 (Died)	Bill Clinton	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1980–1993)
97		Stephen Breyer	2nd	Blackmun	July 29, 1994 (87–9)	August 3, 1994 – June 30, 2022 (Retired)		Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990–1994)
98		Samuel Alito	8th	O'Connor	January 31, 2006 (58–42)	January 31, 2006 – Incumbent	George W. Bush	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1990–2006)
99		Sonia Sotomayor	3rd	Souter	August 6, 2009 (68–31)	August 8, 2009 – Incumbent	Barack Obama	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1998–2009)
100		Elena Kagan	4th	Stevens	August 5, 2010 (63–37)	August 7, 2010 – Incumbent		45th solicitor general of the United States (2009–2010)
101		Neil Gorsuch	9th	Scalia	April 7, 2017 (54–45)	April 10, 2017 – Incumbent	Donald Trump	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2006–2017)
102		Brett Kavanaugh	1st	Kennedy	October 6, 2018 (50–48)	October 6, 2018 – Incumbent		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2006–2018)
103		Amy Coney Barrett	6th	Ginsburg	October 26, 2020 (52–48)	October 27, 2020 – Incumbent		Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020)
104		Ketanji Brown Jackson	2nd	Breyer	April 7, 2022 (53–47)	June 30, 2022 – Incumbent	Joe Biden	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2021–2022)

Notes