The current nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court

John Roberts: Current Chief Justice, assumed office on September 29, 2005; graduated from Harvard Law School. In September 2005, Roberts was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate to become the 17th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court—the youngest Chief Justice in over two centuries. Clarence Thomas: Assumed office on October 23, 1991; graduated from Yale Law School. In 1990, Thomas was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In 1991, he was nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming only the second African American justice in U.S. history. Samuel Alito: Assumed office on January 31, 2006; graduated from Yale Law School. In 1991, Alito became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. On October 31, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. His nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 31, 2006, and he was sworn in at the White House on February 1. Sonia Sotomayor: Born in New York City, currently an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She studied at Princeton University (1972–1976) and Yale Law School (1976–1979), earning her Juris Doctor degree in 1979. On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court; she was sworn in on August 8, 2009, becoming the first Hispanic justice in U.S. history. Elena Kagan: Born in New York City; graduated from Harvard Law School. On May 9, 2010, NBC News reported that President Obama had decided to nominate Deputy Attorney General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. The Senate confirmed her nomination by a vote of 63–37. Neil Gorsuch: Assumed office on April 10, 2017; graduated from Harvard Law School; born in Colorado. He has served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 2017. On January 31, 2017, Gorsuch was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.

The U.S. Supreme Court: Powerful, Yet Increasingly Unpopular

Yet the Supreme Court’s judicial process is actually far simpler than the congressional legislative process. First, a case must be appealed from a lower court to the Supreme Court and accepted for review. Then, a majority vote—five out of nine justices—is sufficient to issue a ruling. Crucially, the decision rests entirely within the Court’s internal deliberations; neither the President nor Congress may intervene. Finally, the majority drafts and issues its opinion, which carries the force of law: it can overturn executive or legislative actions and interpret the Constitution expansively or restrictively. For example, in the 1973 case Roe v. Wade, although the word “abortion” does not appear in the Constitution, the Court interpreted abortion rights as falling under the constitutional right to privacy—a personal privacy right that includes decisions about abortion. Thus, laws banning abortion were held to violate women’s constitutional privacy rights, thereby securing legal access to abortion nationwide, since state laws cannot contradict the federal Constitution. Under the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court justices are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate via majority vote—ensuring the Court remains inevitably entangled in partisan politics and ideological conflict. Yet even setting aside partisan political disputes, the U.S. Supreme Court faces two clear problems—or flaws—fundamentally explaining why calls for Court reform recur so frequently. First, lack of transparency. In the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, a draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to the media over a month before the official ruling, triggering widespread public outcry. Chief Justice Roberts condemned the leak and launched an investigation—but ultimately failed to identify the source. Notably, the public did not condemn the leak; instead, it immediately ignited a broad national debate on abortion rights. By contrast, congressional legislation unfolds under intense public and media scrutiny, accompanied by vigorous debate and revisions—making it relatively transparent. Yet rulings by the Supreme Court—especially those involving fundamental constitutional liberties and carrying profound social and political consequences—are conducted entirely behind closed doors. In this sense, the process is arguably unfair. Second, justices face no meaningful oversight. In practice, Supreme Court justices operate without binding legal or ethical constraints. For instance, Justices Alito and Thomas have been accused by Democrats of accepting lavish hospitality and substantial gifts from Republican donors without proper disclosure—and of refusing to recuse themselves despite their spouses having publicly expressed positions on pending cases. Moreover, to preserve the Court’s perceived “independence” and ensure justices’ safety, they remain shielded from media and public accountability. It is therefore unsurprising that public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court has steadily declined—from 66% in the late 1980s to just 36% in 2024. Last month, President Biden proposed reforms to the Court—including limiting justices’ terms to 18 years and adopting a formal code of judicial conduct. Yet this proposal is itself quite rudimentary—best understood as a campaign tactic designed to draw attention and keep the Court’s legitimacy crisis front-and-center, especially to mobilize Democratic voters angered by the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Justice Alito Recuses from Major Oil Climate Change Case Over Stock Holdings

Oct 10, 2026

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stepped aside from a climate change lawsuit targeting oil companies due to his wife's stock holdings. His absence creates a risk of a 4-4 tie, leaving critical industry liability issues unresolved.

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Justice Alito Recuses from Major Oil Climate Change Case Over Stock Holdings

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