251 articles
Ideological leanings of United States Supreme Court justices
Ideological leanings of US Supreme Court justices: liberal-conservative positions measured via Martin-Quinn scores (1937-present), Segal-Cover values, and common-space scores; party-ideology alignment since 2010, drift, and polarization.
Impeachment controversies involving Supreme Court justices
Three US Supreme Court justices have faced serious impeachment action: Samuel Chase, impeached in 1804 and acquitted in 1805; Abe Fortas; and William O. Douglas.
Insular Cases
Insular Cases: 1901–1922 Supreme Court decisions (DeLima, Dooley, Downes v. Bidwell, Dorr, Balzac) creating territorial incorporation, under which constitutional rights apply only selectively in unincorporated US territories like Puerto Rico.
Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth Courts (1789–1800)
The Jay (1789–1795), Rutledge (1795), and Ellsworth (1796–1800) Courts were the first three Supreme Court eras, spanning the founding decade, the only Senate-rejected recess appointee, and early landmark decisions.
John F. Davis (lawyer)
John F. Davis was an American lawyer who served as Clerk of the Supreme Court from 1961 to 1970 and argued the DuPont antitrust case.
John J. Parker
John J. Parker (John Johnston Parker, 1885-1958), North Carolina Republican and Fourth Circuit chief judge; Hoover's 1930 Supreme Court nominee, the first rejected in the twentieth century, 39-41 on May 7, 1930; later Nuremberg tribunal alternate judge.
John Jay
John Jay (1745-1829) was an American Founding Father from New York, first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court (1789-1795), Federalist co-author, Treaty of Paris and Jay Treaty negotiator, and two-term New York governor.
John Marshall
John Marshall (1755–1835), fourth and longest-serving US Chief Justice (1801–1835), established judicial review in Marbury v. Madison and led landmark federalism cases, while also owning hundreds of enslaved people and writing proslavery opinions.
John Marshall Harlan
John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911), Kentucky lawyer, Union colonel, and Supreme Court associate justice 1877–1911; the "Great Dissenter" whose lone Plessy v. Ferguson dissent declared the Constitution color-blind and whose grandson Harlan II also served on the Court.
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens (1920–2019), Supreme Court associate justice 1975–2010, appointed by Ford after Seventh Circuit service; wrote Chevron and Massachusetts v. EPA, 628 dissents, later urged repealing the Second Amendment.
John Roberts
John Roberts (John Glover Roberts Jr., born 1955, Buffalo, NY) is the 17th Chief Justice of the United States, confirmed 78-22 on September 29, 2005, succeeding Rehnquist; former D.C. Circuit judge, Harvard-trained, known for the umpire metaphor and the 2012 ACA ruling.
John Rutledge
John Rutledge (1739-1800), South Carolina revolutionary governor, Constitution signer, and chairman of the Committee of Detail; Associate Justice 1790-1791 and recess-appointed second Chief Justice in 1795, rejected by the Senate after his Jay Treaty speech.
John Rutledge Supreme Court nominations
John Rutledge's two Supreme Court nominations: confirmed as an original associate justice in 1789, then nominated chief justice in 1795 after Jay's resignation; his recess appointment ended when the Senate rejected him 14-10 over his Jay Treaty speech.
Joseph Story
Joseph Story (1779–1845), youngest-ever U.S. Supreme Court justice (appointed 1812), Harvard's Dane Professor, author of the 1833 Commentaries on the Constitution and major opinions Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, Amistad, Swift v. Tyson, and Prigg v. Pennsylvania.
Judicial Circuits Act
Judicial Circuits Act (14 Stat. 209, July 23, 1866) is the US statute, also called the Circuit Reorganization Act, that cut federal judicial circuits from ten to nine and set the Supreme Court to shrink to seven justices by attrition, blocking Andrew Johnson's appointments until the 1869 act restored nine.
Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937
The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, FDR's court-packing plan, proposed adding one Supreme Court justice per justice over 70, up to six, to protect New Deal laws; it was defeated in July 1937.
Judicial review in the United States
Judicial review in the United States: courts' power to void unconstitutional laws, established by Marbury v. Madison (1803), extended to all state courts by 1850, and reshaped for federal agencies by Loper Bright (2024).
Judiciary Act of 1869
Judiciary Act of 1869, also called the Circuit Judges Act (16 Stat. 44), a U.S. federal statute setting the Supreme Court at nine justices, creating nine circuit judgeships, easing circuit riding, and first allowing judicial retirement with salary.
Judiciary Act of 1925
The Judiciary Act of 1925, commonly called the Judges' Bill, is a US federal statute, drafted by the Supreme Court justices themselves, that made most Supreme Court review discretionary.
Jurisdiction stripping
Jurisdiction stripping: Congress's use of the Article III Exceptions Clause and its control over lower federal courts to remove classes of cases from judicial review, bounded by Klein, Plaut, and Patchak.
Kelo v. City of New London
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005): Supreme Court case, 5-4, holding economic development takings for private developers are a Fifth Amendment public use; sparked state eminent domain reforms.
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Ketanji Brown Jackson, born 1970, is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, confirmed 53-47 on April 7, 2022, as the first Black woman justice and first former public defender, succeeding Stephen Breyer.
Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), was a 6-3 Supreme Court decision upholding the wartime exclusion of Japanese Americans, later vacated by coram nobis in 1983 and repudiated in Trump v. Hawaii (2018).
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), the Supreme Court's 6-3 Due Process ruling by Justice Kennedy striking down Texas Penal Code §21.06 and overruling Bowers v. Hardwick, legalizing same-sex sexual activity nationwide.
Legal Tender Cases
The Legal Tender Cases (Hepburn v. Griswold 1870; Knox v. Lee and Parker v. Davis 1871; Juilliard v. Greenman 1884) are Supreme Court decisions on whether Congress could make Civil War greenback paper money legal tender, upholding the power after reversing Hepburn.
Lemon v. Kurtzman
Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), a U.S. Supreme Court case striking down Pennsylvania and Rhode Island aid to religious schools, announced the three-prong Lemon test for Establishment Clause cases, overruled in Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022).
Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Lewis F. Powell Jr. (1907–1998), American Supreme Court associate justice 1972–1987, Nixon appointee succeeding Hugo Black, swing vote of the Burger Court, author of Bakke and McCleskey, and writer of the 1971 Powell memo.
List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States: the 17 Chief Justices and 104 Associate Justices serving since 1789, now nine members, with oath dates, appointing presidents, and service records.
List of landmark court decisions in the United States
Landmark US Supreme Court decisions: informal scholarly designation for rulings like Marbury, Brown, Miranda, Roe/Dobbs, and Obergefell; grouped by doctrine, era, and chronology; includes overrulings, docket statistics, and 2023–2026 additions.
List of nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States
List of nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court: all 165 presidential nominations since 1789, with Senate votes, 128 confirmations, rejections such as Rutledge and Bork, and hearing history.