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SUPREME COURT OF THE U.S.
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INTRODUCTION - CHIEF JUSTICES OF THE UNITED STATES
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1. John Jay
Nominated: September 24, 1789
Vote: September 26, 1789
Term Start (Oath): October 19, 1789
Term End: June 29, 1795
Length of Term: 2079 days
Length of Retirement: 12,375 days
Date of Death: May 17, 1829
Appointed by: George Washington
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
2. John Rutledge
John Rutledge is interesting in that he was appointed and then rejected as Chief Justice when it came time for the vote. He had given a highly controversial speech so his reputation was in tatters by the time the vote came up. Previously served as an Associate Justice, but subsequently at a time disconnected to service as Chief Justice.
Nominated: July 1, 1795
Vote: December 15, 1795
Term Start (oath): August 12, 1795
Term End: December 28, 1795
Length of Term: 125 days
Length of Retirement: 1,649 days
Date of Death: June 21, 1800
Appointed by: George Washington
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
3. Oliver Ellsworth
Nominated: March 3, 1796
Vote: March 4, 1796
Term Start (oath): March 8, 1796
Term End: December 15, 1800
Length of Term: 1,742 days
Length of Retirement: 2,537 days
Date of Death: November 26, 1807
Appointed by: George Washington
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
4. John Marshall
Chief Justice John Marshall died in office.
Nominated: January 20, 1801
Vote: January 27, 1801
Term Start (oath): February 4, 1801
Term End: July 6, 1835†
Length of Term: 12,570 days
Length of Retirement: N/A - Died While In Office
Date of Death: July 6, 1835
Appointed by: John Adams - Federalist Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
5. Roger B. Taney
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney died in office.
Nominated: December 28, 1835
Vote: March 15, 1836
Term Start (oath): March 28, 1836
Term End: October 12, 1864†
Length of Term: 10,425 days
Length of Retirement: N/A - Died While in Office
Date of Death: October 12, 1864
Appointed by: Andrew Jackson - Democratic Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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6. Salmon P. Chase
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase died in office.
Nominated: December 6, 1864
Vote: December 6, 1864
Term Start (Oath): December 15, 1864
Term End: May 7, 1873
Length of Term: 3,074 days
Length of Retirement: Died While in Office
Date of Death: May 7, 1873
Appointed by: Abraham Lincoln - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
7. Morrison Waite
Chief Justice Morrison Waite died in office.
Nominated:January 19, 1874
Vote: January 21, 1874
Term Start (Oath): March 4, 1874
Term End: March 23, 1888
Length of Term: 5,133 days
Length of Retirement: Died While in Office
Date of Death: March 23, 1888
Appointed by: Ulysses S. Grant - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
8. Melville Fuller
Chief Justice Melville Fuller died in office.
Nominated: April 30, 1888
Vote: July 20, 1888
Term Start (Oath): October 8, 1888
Term End: July 4, 1910
Length of Term: 7,938 days
Length of Retirement: Died While in Office
Date of Death: July 4, 1910
Appointed by: Grover Cleveland - Democratic Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
9. Edward Douglass White
Chief Justice Edward Douglas White was elevated from Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to the Chief Justice of the United States position. Chief Justice Edward Douglass White died in office.
Nominated: December 12, 1910
Vote: December 12, 1910
Term Start (Oath): December 19, 1910
Term End: May 19, 1921
Length of Term: 3,804 days
Length of Retirement: Died While in Office
Date of Death: May 19, 1921
Appointed by: William Howard Taft - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
10. William Howard Taft
Chief Justice of the United States William Howard Taft's previous service was as the President of the United States.
Nominated: June 30, 1921
Vote: June 30, 1921
Term Start (Oath): July 11, 1921
Term End: February 3, 1930
Length of Term: 3,129 days
Length of Retirement: 33 days
Date of Death: March 8, 1930
Appointed by: Warren G. Harding - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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11. Charles Evans Hughes
Chief Justice of the United States Charles Evans Hughes previously served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, but at a time disconnected to service as Chief Justice of the United States. Associate Justice Hughes had resigned from the Supreme Court on June 10, 1916, to be the Republican candidate for President in 1916. Hughes returned to government office in 1921 as Secretary of State under President Warren G. Harding. The Secretary of State Hughes continued in office after President Harding died and was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge, but resigned after Coolidge was elected to a full term. On June 30, 1922, he signed the Hughes–Peynado agreement that ended the United States's six-year occupation of Dominican Republic. Previously, Hughes had served as the Governor of New York from 1907 to 1910. Herbert Hoover appointed Hughes Chief Justice of the United States on February 3, 1930. Hughes was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 13, 1930, and received commission the same day, serving in this capacity until 1941. Hughes replaced former President William Howard Taft, a fellow Republican who had also lost a presidential election to Woodrow Wilson (in 1912) and who, in 1910, had appointed Hughes to his first tenure on the Supreme Court. Hughes as Chief Justice swore in President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, 1937 and 1941. Hughes wrote twice as many constitutional opinions as any of his court's other members. His opinions, in the view of one commentator, were concise and admirable, placing Hughes in the pantheon of great justices." His "remarkable intellectual and social gifts...made him a superb leader and administrator. He had a photographic memory that few, if any, of his colleagues could match.
Nominated: February 3, 1930
Vote: February 13, 1930
Term Start (Oath): February 24, 1930
Term End: July 1, 1941
Length of Term: 4,144 days
Length of Retirement: 2,615 days
Date of Death: August 27, 1948
Appointed by: Herbert Hoover - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
12. Harlan F. Stone
Chief Justice of the United States Harlan Stone was elevated from Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to the Chief Justice of the United States position. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone died in office.
Nominated: June 12, 1941
Vote: June 27, 1941
Term Start (Oath): July 3, 1941
Term End: April 22, 1946
Length of Term: 1,754 days
Length of Retirement: Died While in Office
Date of Death: April 22, 1946
Appointed by: Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Democratic Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
13. Fred M. Vinson
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson died in office.
Nominated: June 6, 1946
Vote: June 20, 1946
Term Start (Oath): June 24, 1946
Term End: September 8, 1953
Length of Term: 2,633 days
Length of Retirement: Died While in Office
Date of Death: September 8, 1953
Appointed by: Harry S. Truman - Democratic Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
14. Earl Warren
Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren was placed on the court by recess appointment, he was formally nominated and confirmed afterwards and was sworn in on March 2, 1954.
Nominated: January 11, 1954
Vote: March 1, 1954
Term Start (Oath): October 5, 1953
Term End: June 23, 1969
Length of Term: 5,740 days
Length of Retirement: 1,842 days
Date of Death: July 9, 1974
Appointed by: Dwight David Eisenhower - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
15. Warren E. Burger
Nominated: May 21, 1969
Vote: June 9, 1969
Term Start (Oath): June 23, 1969
Term End: September 26, 1986
Length of Term: 6,304 days
Length of Retirement: 3,194 days
Date of Death: June 25, 1995
Appointed by: Richard Nixon - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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16. William Rehnquist
Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist was elevated from Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to the Chief Justice of the United States position. Chief Justice William Rehnquist died in office.
Nominated: June 17, 1986
Vote: September 17, 1986
Term Start (Oath): September 26, 1986
Term End: September 3, 2005†
Length of Term: 6,917 days
Length of Retirement: Died While in Office
Date of Death: September 3, 2005
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
17. John G. Roberts, Jr.
Nominated: September 6, 2005
Vote: September 29, 2005
Term Start (Oath): September 29, 2005
Term End: Current Chief Justice of the United States
Length of Term: 3,398 days
Length of Retirement: Incumbent
Date of Death: Incumbent - Current Chief Justice of the United States
Appointed by: George W. Bush - Republican Party
Link to thread on History Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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"The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system (the judicial branch of the federal government of the United States) and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1789 until 1866, the office was known as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice is the highest judicial officer in the country, and acts as a chief administrative officer for the federal courts and as head of the Judicial Conference of the United States appoints the director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. The Chief Justice also serves as a spokesperson for the judicial branch.
The Chief Justice leads the business of the Supreme Court and presides over oral arguments before the court. When the court renders an opinion, the Chief Justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion. The Chief Justice also has significant agenda-setting power over the court's meetings. In the case of an impeachment of a President of the United States, which has occurred twice, the Chief Justice presides over the trial in the Senate. In modern tradition, the Chief Justice has the ceremonial duty of administering the oath of office of the President of the United States.
The first Chief Justice was John Jay. The 17th and current Chief Justice is John G. Roberts, Jr."
Source; Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Ju...
Origin, title, and appointment to the post
"The United States Constitution does not explicitly establish the office of Chief Justice, but presupposes its existence with a single reference in Article I, Section 3, Clause 6: "When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside." Nothing more is said in the Constitution regarding the office, including any distinction between the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, who are not mentioned in the Constitution.
The office was originally known as "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" and is still informally referred to using that title. However, 28 U.S.C. § 1 specifies that the title is "Chief Justice of the United States". The title was changed from Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Congress in 1866 at the suggestion of the sixth Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase. Chase wished to emphasize the Supreme Court's role as a co-equal branch of government. The first Chief Justice commissioned using the new title was Melville Fuller in 1888. Use of the previous title when referring to Chief Justices John Jay through Roger B. Taney is technically correct, as that was the legal title during their time on the court, but the newer title is frequently used retroactively for all Chief Justices.
The other eight members of the court are officially Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, not "Associate Justices of the United States." The Chief Justice is the only member of the court to whom the Constitution refers as a "Justice," and only in Article I. Article III of the Constitution refers to all members of the Supreme Court (and of other federal courts) simply as "Judges."
The Chief Justice is nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed to sit on the Court by the United States Senate. The U.S. Constitution states that all justices of the court "shall hold their offices during good behavior," meaning that the appointments end only when a justice dies in office, resigns, or is impeached by the United States House of Representatives and convicted at trial by the Senate. The salary of the Chief Justice is set by Congress; the Constitution prohibits Congress from lowering the salary of any judge, including the Chief Justice, while that judge holds his or her office. As of 2010, the salary is $223,500 per year, which is slightly higher than that of the Associate Justices.
While the Chief Justice is appointed by the President, there is no specific constitutional prohibition against using another method to select the Chief Justice from among those Justices properly appointed and confirmed to the Supreme Court, and at least one scholar has proposed that presidential appointment should be done away with, and replaced by a process that permits the Justices to select their own Chief Justice.
Three serving Associate Justices have received promotions to Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White in 1910, Harlan Fiske Stone in 1941, and William Rehnquist in 1986. Associate Justice Abe Fortas was nominated to the position of Chief Justice of the United States, but his nomination was filibustered by Senate Republicans in 1968. Despite the failed nomination, Fortas remained an Associate Justice until his resignation the following year. Most Chief Justices, including John Roberts, have been nominated to the highest position on the Court without any previous experience on the Supreme Court; indeed some, such as Earl Warren, received confirmation despite having no prior judicial experience.
There have been 21 individuals nominated for Chief Justice, of whom 17 have been confirmed by the Senate, although a different 17 have served. The second Chief Justice, John Rutledge, served in 1795 on a recess appointment, but did not receive Senate confirmation. Associate Justice William Cushing received nomination and confirmation as Chief Justice in January 1796, but declined the office; President Washington then nominated, and the Senate confirmed, Oliver Ellsworth, who served instead. The Senate subsequently confirmed President Adams's nomination of John Jay to replace Ellsworth, but Jay declined to resume his former office, citing the burden of riding circuit and its impact on his health, and his perception of the Court's lack of prestige. Adams then nominated John Marshall, whom the Senate confirmed shortly afterward.
When the Chief Justice dies in office or is otherwise unwilling or unable to serve, the duties of the Chief Justice temporarily are performed by the most senior sitting associate justice, who acts as Chief Justice until a new Chief Justice is confirmed. Currently, Antonin Scalia is the most senior associate justice.
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Ju...