Associate Justice of The Supreme Court of The United States

Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States

Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States. The number of Associate Justices is determined by the United States Congress and is currently set at eight by the Judiciary Act of 1869.

Associate Justices, like the Chief Justice, are nominated by the President of the United States and are confirmed by the United States Senate by majority vote. This is provided for in Article II of the Constitution, which states that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint...Judges of the supreme Court."

Article III of the Constitution specifies that Associate Justices, and all other United States federal judges "shall hold their Offices during good Behavior." This language means that the appointments are effectively for life, ending only when a Justice dies in office, retires, or is removed from office following impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate.

Each of the Justices of the Supreme Court has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it; the Chief Justice's vote counts no more than that of any other Justice. However, in drafting opinions, the Chief Justice enjoys additional influence in case disposition if in the majority through his power to assign who writes the opinion. Otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. Furthermore, the Chief Justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. The Chief Justice has certain administrative responsibilities that the other Justices do not and is paid slightly more ($223,500 per year for the Chief Justice and $213,900 per year for each Associate Justice).

Associate Justices have seniority by order of appointment, although the Chief Justice is always considered to be the most senior. If two justices are appointed on the same day, the older is designated the senior Justice of the two. Currently, the senior Associate Justice is Antonin Scalia. By tradition, when the Justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Court, the justices state their views in order of seniority. If there is a knock at their conference room door, the junior justice (who sits closest to the door) must answer it. The current junior justice is Elena Kagan.

Under 28 USC 3, when the Chief Justice is unable to discharge his functions, or that office is vacant, his duties are carried out by the most senior Associate Justice until the disability or the vacancy ends.

The current Associate Justices are (in order of seniority):

  • Antonin Scalia

  • Anthony Kennedy

  • Clarence Thomas

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  • Stephen Breyer

  • Samuel Alito

  • Sonia Sotomayor

  • Elena Kagan

Read more about Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States:  Retired Associate Justices, List of Associate Justices

Famous quotes containing the words united states, associate, justice, supreme, court, united and/or states:

    “The United States never lost a war or won a conference.”
    —Will Rogers (1879–1935)

    “I know no other way to associate with great tasks than as play: as a sign of greatness, this is an essential presupposition.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    “You are all alike, you respectable people. You can’t tell me the bursting strain of a ten-inch gun, which is a very simple matter; but you all think you can tell me the bursting strain of a man under temptation. You daren’t handle high explosives; but you’re all ready to handle honesty and truth and justice and the whole duty of man, and kill one another at that game. What a country! What a world!”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”
    —Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)

    “In the court of the movie Owner, none criticized, none doubted. And none dared speak of art. In the Owner’s mind art was a synonym for bankruptcy.... The movie Owners are the only troupe in the history of entertainment that has never been seduced by the adventure of the entertainment world.”
    —Ben Hecht (1893–1964)

    “What chiefly distinguishes the daily press of the United States from the press of all other countries is not its lack of truthfulness or even its lack of dignity and honor, for these deficiencies are common to the newspapers everywhere, but its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by translating all issues into a few elemental fears, its incessant reduction of all reflection to mere emotion. It is, in the true sense, never well-informed.”
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)

    “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
    —John Locke (1632–1704)