50 Fun Facts About Supreme Court

How many justices have sat on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1869?

The number has changed six times; the Judiciary Act of 1869 fixed it at nine.

The Judiciary Act of 1789 originally set the Supreme Court at how many justices?

President Washington signed it on 24 September 1789, creating one chief justice and five associates.

Who was the first Chief Justice of the United States?

He left the court in 1795 to become governor of New York, a job he apparently found more appealing.

Where did the Supreme Court hold its first session, in February 1790?

It met at the Royal Exchange, since New York was then the national capital.

Which 1803 case established judicial review, letting courts strike down unconstitutional laws?

The dispute began with a batch of 'midnight' justice-of-the-peace commissions John Adams signed two days before leaving office.

Who is the longest-serving chief justice in U.S. history, holding the post from 1801 to 1835?

He was serving as John Adams's secretary of state when he was appointed.

Which justice is the only one ever to have been impeached by the House of Representatives?

The Senate acquitted him in 1805 and he stayed on the bench, a result that helped cement judicial independence.

The 1857 Dred Scott decision, written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, held what?

The 7-2 ruling is widely regarded as the worst decision in the court's history and helped push the country toward civil war.

The 1896 'separate but equal' case involved a man who boarded a whites-only what?

Homer Plessy deliberately broke Louisiana's Separate Car Act to create a test case, and lost 7-1.

Which justice set the record for longest service on the court, sitting from 1939 to 1975?

He was confirmed at 40, one of the youngest ever, which is how he managed more than 36 years.

Which justice retired from the court at the age of 90, the oldest ever to serve?

He had been wounded three times fighting for the Union in the Civil War before he ever studied law.

Who nominated Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish justice, in 1916?

The confirmation fight lasted four months, then a record for a Supreme Court nominee.

Who is the only person to have served both as President of the United States and as Chief Justice?

He said the court job was the one he had always wanted, and lobbied for the court to get its own building.

The Supreme Court did not get its own building until which year, having met in the Capitol before that?

Chief Justice Taft pushed the project through Congress but died before it was finished.

Which architect, a friend of Taft, designed the Supreme Court Building?

It was his last major work; he died before completion and his son finished it, slightly under the $9.74 million budget.

What four-word motto is carved above the west entrance of the Supreme Court Building?

The east side carries a different motto, 'Justice, the Guardian of Liberty'.

The gym on the top floor of the justices' building includes a basketball floor with what nickname?

A sign by the door bans playing basketball while the real court is in session, since it sits directly above the courtroom.

FDR's 1937 'court-packing' plan would have added a justice for every sitting member over what age?

The plan capped the additions at six and died in Congress, but the court soon began upholding New Deal laws anyway.

The 1944 case upholding the wartime exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast bears whose name?

The 23-year-old had refused to leave the exclusion zone; his conviction was finally vacated in 1983.

Before Eisenhower made him chief justice in 1953, Earl Warren had been governor of which state?

He is the only Californian governor elected to three consecutive terms, and later chaired the commission on the Kennedy assassination.

The 1954 ruling that ended legal school segregation concerned a school district where?

The vote was unanimous; Justice Reed, the last holdout, reportedly wept as the opinion was read.

How many of his 32 Supreme Court civil rights cases did Thurgood Marshall win as an NAACP lawyer?

The run included Brown v. Board of Education; he joined the court himself in 1967 as its first African American justice.

Which justice, appointed in 1962, had been an NFL halfback for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Lions?

'Whizzer' White was runner-up for the 1937 Heisman Trophy and played for Detroit while enrolled at Yale Law School.

The 1963 case guaranteeing poor defendants a lawyer began with a petition written how?

Clarence Earl Gideon used the prison library to draft his appeal, and the court ruled unanimously in his favour.

Under New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), officials suing for defamation must prove what?

The plaintiff must show the publisher knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether it was.

In which city was Ernesto Miranda, whose 1966 case created the 'right to remain silent' warning, arrested?

The 5-4 opinion was written by Chief Justice Warren, who borrowed the wording from the FBI's own procedures.

The 1967 case striking down interracial marriage bans bore the couple's surname. What was it?

Richard and Mildred Loving had been convicted under Virginia's Racial Integrity Act; the ruling was unanimous.

In the 1969 Tinker case, students won the right to wear what to school in protest at the Vietnam War?

The court said students do not 'shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate'.

In United States v. Nixon (1974), the court unanimously ordered the president to hand over what?

Nixon resigned sixteen days after the ruling.

Who nominated Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the court, in 1981?

The Senate confirmed her unanimously; she later signed letters 'FWOTSC', First Woman on the Supreme Court.

Which president is the only one to serve a full elected term without getting to appoint a single justice?

By contrast, four presidents each appointed a chief justice and several associates in a single term.

In 1987 the Senate rejected Robert Bork's nomination by what vote?

It remains the most recent nomination voted down by the Senate, and gave the language the verb 'to bork'.

Clarence Thomas joined the court in 1991 to succeed which justice?

Born in Pin Point, Georgia, he became the second African American justice and is now the court's longest-serving member.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated in 1993 to replace which retiring justice?

She was the second woman and the first Jewish woman on the court, and was seen at the time as a moderate consensus-builder.

Bush v. Gore, decided on 12 December 2000, halted a recount in which state?

The state's own supreme court had ordered a recount of more than 61,000 'undervotes' the machines had missed.

John Roberts became chief justice in 2005 after which chief justice died in office?

Roberts had first been nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor as an associate justice, then switched to the top job.

Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice, grew up in which New York borough?

The daughter of Puerto Rican parents, she graduated from Princeton with high honours and edited the Yale Law Journal.

The 2010 Citizens United case began with a group's attempt to air a film critical of which politician?

The 5-4 ruling held that limits on independent political spending by corporations and unions violate the First Amendment.

The 2015 Obergefell ruling that same-sex couples have a right to marry was decided by what margin?

It required all 50 states, D.C. and the territories to perform and recognise the marriages.

Merrick Garland's 2016 nomination never got a hearing. Whose death had created the vacancy?

Senate leader Mitch McConnell announced within hours of the death that he would treat any nomination that year as null and void.

Ketanji Brown Jackson took the seat of which justice, for whom she had once clerked?

She is the first Black woman and the first former federal public defender on the court.

The 2022 Dobbs decision held that the Constitution does not confer a right to what?

It overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).

The Supreme Court grants about 80 petitions a year out of roughly how many received?

Under the 'rule of four', it takes only four of the nine justices to agree to hear a case.

By custom, who answers the door and serves the drinks during the nine members' private conferences?

No clerks or staff are allowed in the room, so the newest member handles the chores.

A Supreme Court term traditionally begins on which day?

The term then runs until late June or early July, when the biggest opinions tend to land.

The Constitution says justices hold office 'during good behavior', which in practice means what?

The only way to remove one is impeachment by Congress, which has been tried exactly once.

In which year was the size of the Supreme Court last changed, fixing it at nine justices?

President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Judiciary Act of 1869; FDR's later attempt to expand the bench went nowhere.

Of the nine justices sitting in 2025, who alone did not attend an Ivy League law school?

She earned her law degree at Notre Dame; the other eight justices of 2025 went to Harvard or Yale.

Of the justices sitting in 2025, who alone had never served as a judge before joining?

Kagan came to the bench from the post of Solicitor General in 2010.

Who was the first Supreme Court nominee to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in 1925?

He went to quell concerns about his Wall Street links; routine questioning of nominees only began with John Marshall Harlan II in 1955.