The recent death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has sent shock waves throughout the nation. The reasons for this are numerous and varied, but they are mostly political. The death of Ginsburg has left the nation swimming in a sea of emotions ranging from sadness, anger, fear, frustration, and even joy. Regardless of how her passing is affecting us, this seems like an opportune time for us to take a look at the remaining members of the Supreme Court and a few who have “recently” retired.
John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States,
was born in Buffalo, New York, January 27, 1955. He married Jane Marie Sullivan
in 1996 and they have two children – Josephine and Jack. He received an A.B.
from Harvard College in 1976 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1979. He
served as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the United States Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1979–1980 and as a law clerk for
then-Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United
States during the 1980 Term. He was Special Assistant to the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice from 1981–1982, Associate Counsel to President Ronald Reagan, White
House Counsel’s Office from 1982–1986, and Principal Deputy Solicitor General,
U.S. Department of Justice from 1989–1993. From 1986–1989 and 1993–2003, he
practiced law in Washington, D.C. He was appointed to the United States Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003. President George W.
Bush nominated him as Chief Justice of the United States, and he took his seat
September 29, 2005.
Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice,
was born in the Pinpoint community near Savannah, Georgia on June 23, 1948. He
attended Conception Seminary from 1967-1968 and received an A.B., cum laude,
from College of the Holy Cross in 1971 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974.
He was admitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an Assistant
Attorney General of Missouri, 1974-1977; an attorney with the Monsanto Company,
1977-1979; and Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth, 1979-1981. From
1981–1982 he served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of
Education, and as Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
1982-1990. From 1990–1991, he served as a Judge on the United States Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Bush nominated him as
an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and he took his seat October 23,
1991. He married Virginia Lamp on May 30, 1987 and has one child, Jamal Adeen
by a previous marriage.
Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice,
was born in San Francisco, California, August 15, 1938. He married Joanna Hare
in 1967, and has three children – Chloe, Nell, and Michael. He received an A.B.
from Stanford University, a B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, and an LL.B.
from Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk to Justice Arthur Goldberg of
the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1964 Term, as a Special Assistant
to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Antitrust, 1965–1967, as an
Assistant Special Prosecutor of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, 1973,
as Special Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 1974–1975, and as
Chief Counsel of the committee, 1979–1980. He was an Assistant Professor,
Professor of Law, and Lecturer at Harvard Law School, 1967–1994, a Professor at
the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, 1977–1980, and a Visiting
Professor at the College of Law, Sydney, Australia and at the University of
Rome. From 1980–1990, he served as a Judge of the United States Court of
Appeals for the First Circuit, and as its Chief Judge, 1990–1994. He also
served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 1990–1994,
and of the United States Sentencing Commission, 1985–1989. President Clinton
nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his
seat August 3, 1994.
Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice,
was born in Trenton, New Jersey, April 1, 1950. He married Martha-Ann
Bomgardner in 1985, and has two children – Philip and Laura. He served as a law
clerk for Leonard I. Garth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit from 1976–1977. He was Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey,
1977–1981, Assistant to the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice,
1981–1985, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice,
1985–1987, and U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey, 1987–1990. He was
appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1990.
President George W. Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court, and he took his seat January 31, 2006.
Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice,
was born in Bronx, New York, on June 25, 1954. She earned a B.A. in 1976 from
Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the university’s
highest academic honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where
she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as Assistant
District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from
1979–1984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City
at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner from
1984–1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S.
District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from
1992–1998. She served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit from 1998–2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26,
2009, and she assumed this role August 8, 2009.
Elena Kagan, Associate Justice,
was born in New York, New York, on April 28, 1960. She received an A.B. from
Princeton in 1981, an M. Phil. from Oxford in 1983, and a J.D. from Harvard Law
School in 1986. She clerked for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit from 1986-1987 and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the
U.S. Supreme Court during the 1987 Term. After briefly practicing law at a
Washington, D.C. law firm, she became a law professor, first at the University
of Chicago Law School and later at Harvard Law School. She also served for four
years in the Clinton Administration, as Associate Counsel to the President and
then as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Between 2003 and
2009, she served as the Dean of Harvard Law School. In 2009, President Obama
nominated her as the Solicitor General of the United States. A year later, the
President nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 10,
2010. She took her seat on August 7, 2010.
Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice,
was born in Denver, Colorado, August 29, 1967. He and his wife Louise have two
daughters. He received a B.A. from Columbia University, a J.D. from Harvard Law
School, and a D.Phil. from Oxford University. He served as a law clerk to Judge
David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit, and as a law clerk to Justice Byron White and Justice Anthony
M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1995–2005, he was in
private practice, and from 2005–2006 he was Principal Deputy Associate Attorney
General at the U.S. Department of Justice. He was appointed to the United
States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 2006. He served on the
Standing Committee on Rules for Practice and Procedure of the U.S. Judicial
Conference, and as chairman of the Advisory Committee on Rules of Appellate
Procedure. He taught at the University of Colorado Law School. President Donald
J. Trump nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he
took his seat on April 10, 2017.
Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice,
was born in Washington, D.C., on February 12, 1965. He married Ashley Estes in
2004, and they have two daughters – Margaret and Liza. He received a B.A. from
Yale College in 1987 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990. He served as a
law clerk for Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit from 1990-1991, for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit from 1991-1992, and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the
U.S. Supreme Court during the 1993 Term. In 1992-1993, he was an attorney in
the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. From 1994 to 1997 and
for a period in 1998, he was Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent
Counsel. He was a partner at a Washington, D.C., law firm from 1997 to 1998 and
again from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, he was Associate Counsel and then
Senior Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush. From 2003 to 2006, he was
Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary for President Bush. He was
appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit in 2006. President Donald J. Trump nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took
his seat on October 6, 2018.
Sandra Day O’Connor (Retired), Associate Justice,
was born in El Paso, Texas, March 26, 1930. She married John Jay O’Connor III
in 1952 and has three sons – Scott, Brian, and Jay. She received her B.A. and
LL.B. from Stanford University. She served as Deputy County Attorney of San
Mateo County, California from 1952–1953 and as a civilian attorney for
Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany from 1954–1957. From 1958–1960,
she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona, and served as Assistant Attorney
General of Arizona from 1965–1969. She was appointed to the Arizona State
Senate in1969 and was subsequently reelected to two two-year terms. In 1975 she
was elected Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979,
when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Reagan
nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her
seat September 25, 1981. Justice O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court on
January 31, 2006.
Anthony M. Kennedy (Retired), Associate Justice,
was born in Sacramento, California, July 23, 1936. He married Mary Davis and
has three children. He received his B.A. from Stanford University and the
London School of Economics, and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School. He was in
private practice in San Francisco, California from 1961–1963, as well as in
Sacramento, California from 1963–1975. From 1965 to 1988, he was a Professor of
Constitutional Law at the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. He
has served in numerous positions during his career, including a member of the
California Army National Guard in 1961, the board of the Federal Judicial
Center from 1987–1988, and two committees of the Judicial Conference of the
United States: the Advisory Panel on Financial Disclosure Reports and Judicial
Activities, subsequently renamed the Advisory Committee on Codes of Conduct,
from 1979–1987, and the Committee on Pacific Territories from 1979–1990, which
he chaired from 1982–1990. He was appointed to the United States Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1975. President Reagan nominated him as an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat February 18, 1988.
Justice Kennedy retired from the Supreme Court on July 31, 2018.
David H. Souter (Retired), Associate Justice,
was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, September 17, 1939. He graduated from
Harvard College, from which he received his A.B. After two years as a Rhodes
Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, he received an A.B.
in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and an M.A. in 1963. After receiving an
LL.B. from Harvard Law School, he was an associate at Orr and Reno in Concord,
New Hampshire from 1966 to 1968, when he became an Assistant Attorney General
of New Hampshire. In 1971, he became Deputy Attorney General and in 1976,
Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1978, he was named an Associate Justice
of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was appointed to the Supreme Court
of New Hampshire as an Associate Justice in 1983. He became a Judge of the
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990. President
Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took
his seat October 9, 1990. Justice Souter retired from the Supreme Court on June
29, 2009.
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