Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The court of last resort. It chooses almost all of its own cases, hearing roughly 60–70 of some 5,000 petitions a year. Its rulings bind every other court in the country.
The bench
Who sits on this court?
Judges in active service, when they were confirmed, and who nominated each.
| Judge | Since | Nominated by | Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony McLeod Kennedy Senior | 1988 | Ronald Reagan | SCT0213 |
| Clarence Thomas | 1991 | George H.W. Bush | SCT1108 |
| Stephen Gerald Breyer Senior | 1994 | William J. Clinton | SCT0313 |
| John Glover Roberts Jr. | 2005 | George W. Bush | SCT0117 |
| Samuel A. Alito Jr. | 2006 | George W. Bush | SCT0911 |
| Sonia Sotomayor | 2009 | Barack Obama | SCT0417 |
| Elena Kagan | 2010 | Barack Obama | SCT0513 |
| Neil M. Gorsuch | 2017 | Donald J. Trump | SCT1008 |
| Brett M. Kavanaugh | 2018 | Donald J. Trump | SCT0214 |
| Amy Coney Barrett | 2020 | Donald J. Trump | SCT0714 |
| Ketanji Brown Jackson | 2022 | Joseph R. Biden | SCT0314 |
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)
What seats does this court have?
Each seat on this court, who holds it, and how many judges have held it before.
- Judges seated now
- 11
- Seat numbers on record
- 121
| Seat | Held by | Since | Holders to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCT0117 | John Glover Roberts Jr. | 2005 | 1 |
| SCT0213 | Anthony McLeod Kennedy | 1988 | 1 |
| SCT0214 | Brett M. Kavanaugh | 2018 | 1 |
| SCT0313 | Stephen Gerald Breyer | 1994 | 1 |
| SCT0314 | Ketanji Brown Jackson | 2022 | 1 |
| SCT0417 | Sonia Sotomayor | 2009 | 1 |
| SCT0513 | Elena Kagan | 2010 | 1 |
| SCT0714 | Amy Coney Barrett | 2020 | 1 |
| SCT0911 | Samuel A. Alito Jr. | 2006 | 1 |
| SCT1008 | Neil M. Gorsuch | 2017 | 1 |
| SCT1108 | Clarence Thomas | 1991 | 1 |
110 seat numbers with no sitting judge
These are seat numbers in the historical record with nobody currently in them. That usually means the seat was abolished or renumbered, not that it is open today — Congress has changed the size of federal courts many times. Do not read this as a vacancy list.
| Seat | Last held by | Until | Holders |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCT0101 | John Jay | 1795 | 1 |
| SCT0102 | John Rutledge | 1795 | 1 |
| SCT0103 | Oliver Ellsworth | 1800 | 1 |
| SCT0104 | John Marshall | 1835 | 1 |
| SCT0105 | Roger Brooke Taney | 1864 | 1 |
| SCT0106 | Salmon Portland Chase | 1873 | 1 |
| SCT0107 | Morrison Remick Waite | 1888 | 1 |
| SCT0108 | Melville Weston Fuller | 1910 | 1 |
| SCT0109 | Edward Douglass White | 1921 | 1 |
| SCT0110 | William Howard Taft | 1930 | 1 |
| SCT0111 | Charles Evans Hughes | 1948 | 1 |
| SCT0112 | Harlan Fiske Stone | 1946 | 1 |
| SCT0113 | Frederick Moore Vinson | 1953 | 1 |
| SCT0114 | Earl Warren | 1974 | 1 |
| SCT0115 | Warren Earl Burger | 1995 | 1 |
| SCT0116 | William Hubbs Rehnquist | 2005 | 1 |
| SCT0201 | John Rutledge | 1791 | 1 |
| SCT0202 | Thomas Johnson | 1793 | 1 |
| SCT0203 | William Paterson | 1806 | 1 |
| SCT0204 | Henry Brockholst Livingston | 1823 | 1 |
| SCT0205 | Smith Thompson | 1843 | 1 |
| SCT0206 | Samuel Nelson | 1872 | 1 |
| SCT0207 | Ward Hunt | 1882 | 1 |
| SCT0208 | Samuel M. Blatchford | 1893 | 1 |
| SCT0209 | Edward Douglass White | 1910 | 1 |
| SCT0210 | Willis Van Devanter | 1941 | 1 |
| SCT0211 | Hugo Lafayette Black | 1971 | 1 |
| SCT0212 | Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. | 1998 | 1 |
| SCT0301 | William Cushing | 1810 | 1 |
| SCT0302 | Joseph Story | 1845 | 1 |
| SCT0303 | Levi Woodbury | 1851 | 1 |
| SCT0304 | Benjamin Robbins Curtis | 1857 | 1 |
| SCT0305 | Nathan Clifford | 1881 | 1 |
| SCT0306 | Horace Gray | 1902 | 1 |
| SCT0307 | Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. | 1932 | 1 |
| SCT0308 | Benjamin Nathan Cardozo | 1938 | 1 |
| SCT0309 | Felix Frankfurter | 1965 | 1 |
| SCT0310 | Arthur Joseph Goldberg | 1965 | 1 |
| SCT0311 | Abe Fortas | 1969 | 1 |
| SCT0312 | Harry Andrew Blackmun | 1999 | 1 |
| SCT0401 | James Wilson | 1798 | 1 |
| SCT0402 | Bushrod Washington | 1829 | 1 |
| SCT0403 | Henry Baldwin | 1844 | 1 |
| SCT0404 | Robert Cooper Grier | 1870 | 1 |
| SCT0405 | William Strong | 1880 | 1 |
| SCT0406 | William Burnham Woods | 1887 | 1 |
| SCT0407 | Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar | 1893 | 1 |
| SCT0408 | Howell Edmunds Jackson | 1895 | 1 |
| SCT0409 | Rufus Wheeler Peckham | 1909 | 1 |
| SCT0410 | Horace Harmon Lurton | 1914 | 1 |
| SCT0411 | James Clark McReynolds | 1946 | 1 |
| SCT0412 | James Francis Byrnes | 1942 | 1 |
| SCT0413 | Wiley Blount Rutledge | 1949 | 1 |
| SCT0414 | Sherman Minton | 1965 | 1 |
| SCT0415 | William Joseph Brennan Jr. | 1997 | 1 |
| SCT0416 | David Hackett Souter | 2025 | 1 |
| SCT0501 | John Blair Jr. | 1795 | 1 |
| SCT0502 | Samuel Chase | 1811 | 1 |
| SCT0503 | Gabriel Duvall | 1835 | 1 |
| SCT0504 | Philip Pendleton Barbour | 1841 | 1 |
| SCT0505 | Peter Vivian Daniel | 1860 | 1 |
| SCT0506 | Samuel Freeman Miller | 1890 | 1 |
| SCT0507 | Henry Billings Brown | 1906 | 1 |
| SCT0508 | William Henry Moody | 1910 | 1 |
| SCT0509 | Joseph Rucker Lamar | 1916 | 1 |
| SCT0510 | Louis Dembitz Brandeis | 1941 | 1 |
| SCT0511 | William Orville Douglas | 1980 | 1 |
| SCT0512 | John Paul Stevens | 2019 | 1 |
| SCT0601 | James Iredell | 1799 | 1 |
| SCT0602 | Alfred Moore | 1804 | 1 |
| SCT0603 | William Johnson Jr. | 1834 | 1 |
| SCT0604 | James Moore Wayne | 1867 | 1 |
| SCT0701 | Thomas Todd | 1826 | 1 |
| SCT0702 | Robert Trimble | 1828 | 1 |
| SCT0703 | John McLean | 1861 | 1 |
| SCT0704 | Noah Haynes Swayne | 1881 | 1 |
| SCT0705 | Stanley Matthews | 1889 | 1 |
| SCT0706 | David Josiah Brewer | 1910 | 1 |
| SCT0707 | Charles Evans Hughes | 1916 | 1 |
| SCT0708 | John Hessin Clarke | 1922 | 1 |
| SCT0709 | George Sutherland | 1942 | 1 |
| SCT0710 | Stanley Forman Reed | 1980 | 1 |
| SCT0711 | Charles Evans Whittaker | 1965 | 1 |
| SCT0712 | Byron Raymond White | 2002 | 1 |
| SCT0713 | Ruth Bader Ginsburg | 2020 | 1 |
| SCT0801 | John Catron | 1865 | 1 |
| SCT0901 | John McKinley | 1852 | 1 |
| SCT0902 | John Archibald Campbell | 1861 | 1 |
| SCT0903 | David Davis | 1877 | 1 |
| SCT0904 | John Marshall Harlan | 1911 | 1 |
| SCT0905 | Mahlon Pitney | 1922 | 1 |
| SCT0906 | Edward Terry Sanford | 1930 | 1 |
| SCT0907 | Owen Josephus Roberts | 1945 | 1 |
| SCT0908 | Harold Hitz Burton | 1964 | 1 |
| SCT0909 | Potter Stewart | 1985 | 1 |
| SCT0910 | Sandra Day O'Connor | 2023 | 1 |
| SCT1001 | Stephen Johnson Field | 1897 | 1 |
| SCT1002 | Joseph McKenna | 1925 | 1 |
| SCT1003 | Harlan Fiske Stone | 1941 | 1 |
| SCT1004 | Robert Houghwout Jackson | 1954 | 1 |
| SCT1005 | John Marshall Harlan | 1971 | 1 |
| SCT1006 | William Hubbs Rehnquist | 1986 | 1 |
| SCT1007 | Antonin Scalia | 2016 | 1 |
| SCT1101 | Joseph P. Bradley | 1892 | 1 |
| SCT1102 | George Shiras Jr. | 1903 | 1 |
| SCT1103 | William Rufus Day | 1922 | 1 |
| SCT1104 | Pierce Butler | 1939 | 1 |
| SCT1105 | Frank Murphy | 1949 | 1 |
| SCT1106 | Tom C. Clark | 1977 | 1 |
| SCT1107 | Thurgood Marshall | 1993 | 1 |
This site does not publish a vacancy count. Seat identifiers are not stable across court renamings and reorganisations, so a seat that was vacated and refilled can appear empty when it is not. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts publishes the authoritative list of current judicial vacancies: uscourts.gov.
Seats are created by Congress and filled by the President with the Senate's consent. For current vacancies, use the Administrative Office's published list rather than inferring them from this table.
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)
How this bench was built
Who appointed them?
The tally of presidents who placed the sitting judges on this court.
- Republican
- 7
- Democratic
- 4
| President | Judges |
|---|---|
| Donald J. Trump | 3 |
| George W. Bush | 2 |
| Barack Obama | 2 |
| William J. Clinton | 1 |
| Joseph R. Biden | 1 |
| Ronald Reagan | 1 |
| George H.W. Bush | 1 |
The party of the president who appointed a judge is a matter of record. How that judge will rule is not, and this site draws no inference from one to the other.
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)