Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

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Template:PoliticsUS Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of that court other than the Chief Justice of the United States. Their number is determined by Congress and is currently eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869. Associate Justices are nominated for service by the President of the United States. Their nominations are then referred to the United States Senate for confirmation. If confirmed then, like other federal judges, they serve for life and can only be removed by death, resignation or impeachment.

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 assigns who writes the opinion in a case when the Chief is in the majority, and thus gets additional influence in case disposition. 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 ($208,100 vs. $199,200 as of 2005 [1]).

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

The current assosciate justices are (in order of seniority): John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Samuel Alito

See also

• Associate Justice
• Chief Justice of the United States
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by seat

External links

• Historic collection of Supreme Court decisions and biographies indexed by judge name