title: Scientific theory

text: Certain assumptions are necessary for all empirical claims (e.g. the assumption that reality exists). However, theories do not generally make assumptions in the conventional sense (statements accepted without evidence). While assumptions are often incorporated during the formation of new theories, these are either supported by evidence (such as from previously existing theories) or the evidence is produced in the course of validating the theory. This may be as simple as observing that the theory makes accurate predictions, which is evidence that any assumptions made at the outset are correct or approximately correct under the conditions tested.


title: Scientific theory

text: Conventional assumptions, without evidence, may be used if the theory is only intended to apply when the assumption is valid (or approximately valid). For example, the special theory of relativity assumes an inertial frame of reference. The theory makes accurate predictions when the assumption is valid, and does not make accurate predictions when the assumption is not valid. Such assumptions are often the point with which older theories are succeeded by new ones (the general theory of relativity works in non-inertial reference frames as well).


title: Scientific theory

text: The term "assumption" is actually broader than its standard use, etymologically speaking. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and online Wiktionary indicate its Latin source as "assumere" ("accept, to take to oneself, adopt, usurp"), which is a conjunction of "ad-" ("to, towards, at") and "sumere" (to take). The root survives, with shifted meanings, in the Italian "assumere" and Spanish "sumir". The first sense of "assume" in the OED is "to take unto (oneself), receive, accept, adopt". The term was originally employed in religious contexts as in "to receive up into heaven", especially "the reception of the Virgin Mary into heaven, with body preserved from corruption", (1297 CE) but it was also simply used to refer to "receive into association" or "adopt into partnership". Moreover, other senses of assumere included (i) "investing oneself with (an attribute)", (ii) "to undertake" (especially in Law), (iii) "to take to oneself in appearance only, to pretend to possess", and (iv) "to suppose a thing to be" (all senses from OED entry on "assume"; the OED entry for "assumption" is almost perfectly symmetrical in senses). Thus, "assumption" connotes other associations than the contemporary standard sense of "that which is assumed or taken for granted; a supposition, postulate" (only the 11th of 12 senses of "assumption", and the 10th of 11 senses of "assume").


title: Scientific theory

text: Popper summarized these statements by saying that the central criterion of the scientific status of a theory is its "falsifiability, or refutability, or testability". Echoing this, Stephen Hawking states, "A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements: It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations." He also discusses the "unprovable but falsifiable" nature of theories, which is a necessary consequence of inductive logic, and that "you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory".


title: Scientific theory

text: Several philosophers and historians of science have, however, argued that Popper's definition of theory as a set of falsifiable statements is wrong because, as Philip Kitcher has pointed out, if one took a strictly Popperian view of "theory", observations of Uranus when first discovered in 1781 would have "falsified" Newton's celestial mechanics. Rather, people suggested that another planet influenced Uranus' orbit—and this prediction was indeed eventually confirmed.


title: Scientific theory

text: Kitcher agrees with Popper that "There is surely something right in the idea that a science can succeed only if it can fail." He also says that scientific theories include statements that cannot be falsified, and that good theories must also be creative. He insists we view scientific theories as an "elaborate collection of statements", some of which are not falsifiable, while others—those he calls "auxiliary hypotheses", are.


title: Scientific theory

text: Like other definitions of theories, including Popper's, Kitcher makes it clear that a theory must include statements that have observational consequences. But, like the observation of irregularities in the orbit of Uranus, falsification is only one possible consequence of observation. The production of new hypotheses is another possible and equally important result.


title: Scientific theory

text: The concept of a scientific theory has also been described using analogies and metaphors. For example, the logical empiricist Carl Gustav Hempel likened the structure of a scientific theory to a "complex spatial network:"


title: Scientific theory

text: A theory is something other than myself. It may be set out on paper as a system of rules, and it is the more truly a theory the more completely it can be put down in such terms. Mathematical theory reaches the highest perfection in this respect. But even a geographical map fully embodies in itself a set of strict rules for finding one's way through a region of otherwise uncharted experience. Indeed, all theory may be regarded as a kind of map extended over space and time.


title: Scientific theory

text: A scientific theory can also be thought of as a book that captures the fundamental information about the world, a book that must be researched, written, and shared. In 1623, Galileo Galilei wrote:


title: Scientific theory

text: Philosophy [i.e. physics] is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth.


title: Scientific theory

text: The book metaphor could also be applied in the following passage, by the contemporary philosopher of science Ian Hacking:


title: Scientific theory

text: I myself prefer an Argentine fantasy. God did not write a Book of Nature of the sort that the old Europeans imagined. He wrote a Borgesian library, each book of which is as brief as possible, yet each book of which is inconsistent with every other. No book is redundant. For every book there is some humanly accessible bit of Nature such that that book, and no other, makes possible the comprehension, prediction and influencing of what is going on...Leibniz said that God chose a world which maximized the variety of phenomena while choosing the simplest laws. Exactly so: but the best way to maximize phenomena and have simplest laws is to have the laws inconsistent with each other, each applying to this or that but none applying to all.


title: Scientific theory

text: In physics, the term "theory" is generally used for a mathematical framework—derived from a small set of basic postulates (usually symmetries—like equality of locations in space or in time, or identity of electrons, etc.)—that is capable of producing experimental predictions for a given category of physical systems. A good example is classical electromagnetism, which encompasses results derived from gauge symmetry (sometimes called gauge invariance) in a form of a few equations called Maxwell's equations. The specific mathematical aspects of classical electromagnetic theory are termed "laws of electromagnetism", reflecting the level of consistent and reproducible evidence that supports them. Within electromagnetic theory generally, there are numerous hypotheses about how electromagnetism applies to specific situations. Many of these hypotheses are already considered to be adequately tested, with new ones always in the making and perhaps untested. An example of the latter might be the radiation reaction force. As of 2009, its effects on the periodic motion of charges are detectable in synchrotrons, but only as "averaged" effects over time. Some researchers are now considering experiments that could observe these effects at the instantaneous level (i.e. not averaged over time).


title: Scientific theory

text: Note that many fields of inquiry do not have specific named theories, e.g. developmental biology. Scientific knowledge outside a named theory can still have a high level of certainty, depending on the amount of evidence supporting it. Also note that since theories draw evidence from many fields, the categorization is not absolute.


title: Jodeci

text: Jodeci ( ) is an American R&B quartet consisting of members DeVanté Swing, Mr. Dalvin, K-Ci, and JoJo. Formed in 1989 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jodeci's members began their musical careers as two duos of brothers and, after years of limited success, joined forces. After signing with Uptown Records in 1991, the group began to work on their debut album, "Forever My Lady", which brought them mainstream success with the "Billboard" Hot 100 single "Come and Talk to Me" and the album's titular track.


title: Jodeci

text: The group's critical and commercial success continued with the releases of "Diary of a Mad Band" (1993), and also with "The Show, the After Party, the Hotel" (1995), where the group experimented with various musical styles typically not associated with traditional R&B. Jodeci would incorporate hip hop soul, gospel and new jack swing into their music, which led to the group featured prominently with hip hop artists during the 1990s. Each album released by the group during this period attained platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and helped to redefine the genre, allowing for developments in thematic and musical content within R&B.


title: Jodeci

text: In 1996, they announced a hiatus – though continuing to work on music as a group – which prompted K-Ci & JoJo to branch off as a duo, releasing five albums until 2013, when the group re-united for their fourth studio album, "The Past, the Present, the Future" (2015). Jodeci has sold more than 20 million records worldwide to date. "Complex" magazine ranks the group 1st on their "1990s Male R&B Group Pyramid of Excellence" list in 2014, one of the most influential groups of the 1990s, and the best R&B group of all time. Damon Hart was the last manager.


title: Jodeci

text: Raised in extremely religious Pentecostal families, K-Ci and JoJo – then known as Little Cedric & the Hailey Singers – originally performed and recorded as a gospel group, releasing three albums; "Jesus Saves", "I'm Alright Now", and "God's Blessings". K-Ci would later draw comparisons to Michael Jackson during his gospel career. Separately, Mr. Dalvin and DeVanté Swing performed and toured in their own family's gospel group, where the duos later made acquaintances through relationships the members were in at the time. In a 2011 interview, Dalvin stated, "there was this girl gospel group called UNITY and then the Don DeGrate Delegation, which Devanté and I played in. So we met some of the girls from UNITY and [one] was dating K-Ci before we even met [and she] would always tell us that we need to meet K-Ci and JoJo." A short time after meeting, the brothers started living together after leaving their families to pursue musical careers.


title: Jodeci

text: At 16, DeVanté Swing traveled to Minneapolis, hoping to visit Paisley Park Studios in order to audition to Prince. Swing would later say, "I was up at Paisley Park every day begging for a job, asking people to listen to my tape. The receptionist kept saying she couldn't help me". The rejection motivated Swing to relocate back to North Carolina, and work to improve his songwriting and production skills. Upon arriving, Swing continued to record with the group's additional members, eventually forming Jodeci, and began work on a demo tape to present to label executives. The name Jodeci is an abbreviation of all the members names. "Jo" comes from JoJo, "De" comes from the last name of the DeGrate brothers, and Ci comes from K-Ci.


title: Jodeci

text: The members soon drove to New York City with a 29-song, 3 tape demo, anticipating a signing deal with upstart Uptown Records. Upon arriving to New York, and without the knowledge of the whereabouts of the MCA subsidiary, the group used a phone book to find the company's address, located on Clinton Street in Brooklyn. Swing later commented on the signing, "we didn't have an appointment but I knew what Uptown was, and I wanted us to be there." The group was quickly denied an audition until Andre Harrell agreed to hear the demo. In skepticism of the high quality production, Harrell requested the group to perform, where they performed "Come and Talk to Me" and "I'm Still Waiting", in the presence of Jeff Redd. Hip hop artist Heavy D overheard the performance and consulted Harrell, eventually taking the group out to dinner and awarding them a recording contract.


title: Jodeci

text: Jodeci was assigned to Uptown intern Sean Combs, who took on the task of developing the new act. Counteracting the refined styles prominent in R&B showcased by New Edition and Boyz II Men, Mr. Dalvin created the group's image. Combs helped get the image through to Andre Harrell, perpetuating hip-hop fashion, such as baseball caps and Timberland boots, to the group in order to establish a different aesthetic in the genre. The group was introduced after providing background vocals on the song "Treat Them Like They Want to Be Treated", and performed live on "Soul Train" on June 11, 1991.


title: Jodeci

text: Landing a recording deal in 1991, the group released their debut album "Forever My Lady" that same year. Writer Ronin Ro maintained, ""They no longer resembled gospel singers… Puffy also asked them to build their mystique by posing for photos with their backs to the camera, which he borrowed from Guy's stage show."" The album's seductive energy showcased DeVanté's songwriting, establishing a uniqueness in his production that mixed old-fashioned soul singing with New Jack Swing, creating a production of great boldness. It featured the number 1 R&B singles "Forever My Lady," "Stay," and "Come and Talk to Me." Mr. Dalvin recalls how the album "Forever My Lady" was created, ""The last version of the album that was released only took us a week to finish because we had already written the songs. It was about getting our sounds right because the vocals were already done. It was us going back in the studio recreating the beats and the melodies... Most of the songs were written before we left North Carolina. My brother was 16 and I was 14 when we wrote the songs..."" The album went on to sell over three million copies.


title: Jodeci

text: In 1993, a minor feud resulted over the band's second album, "Diary of a Mad Band"; Jodeci, unhappy with their treatment by Uptown, flirted with the idea of leaving for Death Row Records, which resulted in almost zero promotion for the album. Reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200 and number-one on the R&B album chart, where it stayed for two weeks, spawning the #1 R&B hit "Cry for You"; "Feenin'" and "What About Us", "Diary of a Mad Band" eventually went double platinum.


title: Jodeci

text: Jodeci's third album, "The Show, the After Party, the Hotel", was released in July 1995, reaching the second spot on the Billboard 200 making it the group's highest-peaking release and topping the U.S. R&B Albums chart. By September 1995, it was certified platinum in sales by the RIAA, after sales exceeding one million copies in the United States. The album contained the Top 40 hits "Freek'n You", "Love U 4 Life" and "Get on Up".


title: Jodeci

text: In February 2014, Timbaland revealed that he was in the process of working with Jodeci on their comeback album.


title: Jodeci

text: On November 7, 2014, Jodeci reunited and performed a medley of their classic songs at the 2014 Soul Train Awards. The performance also included a snippet of a brand-new single titled "Nobody Wins," which was released on December 22, 2014. The song is the first single released by Jodeci in over 18 years. The last song released by the group was "Get on Up", in 1996. Prior to the performance, the group had not taken the stage together in the U.S. since 2006.


title: Jodeci

text: On January 28, 2015, a second single titled "Every Moment" was released. Also in that same month, it was announced by Epic Records that Jodeci had been signed to the label to release their new album. Timbaland, who recently brought his Mosley Music Group over to Epic, worked on the album. Their fourth album, "The Past, the Present, the Future", was released on March 31, 2015. It was their first album in 20 years.


title: Jodeci

text: Shortly after the album's release, a Jodeci reunion tour was announced. The first show took place on June 6, 2015, in Richmond, Virginia, as a part of the city's 11th annual Stone Soul Music Festival. Jodeci headlined the event, marking the group's first official concert performance together in the United States since 1995.


title: Jodeci

text: Most of the elements that were eventually combined to form what became known as the "Jodeci style" originated with the work of new jack swing pioneers Keith Sweat and Teddy Riley, with an important influence being the work of Riley's three-man group Guy. Other influences include the works of Bobby Womack, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Bobby Brown,


title: Jodeci

text: and New Edition. The group's cover of Stevie Wonder's 1981 song "Lately", became their biggest pop hit to date, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1993.


title: Jodeci

text: Artists and producers heavily influenced by Jodeci were those were directly or indirectly associated with them, including Mary J. Blige, Dru Hill, Usher and a number of the members of DeVanté's Swing Mob collective who he discovered and nurtured: Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Nealante, Magoo, Ginuwine, Stevie J, Playa (who R&B singer & songwriter Static Major was a part of) with Smoke E. Digglera, Suga (who R&B act Tweet was a part of), and Darryl Pearson.


title: Jodeci

text: To date, Jodeci remains well respected and revered among most hip-hop circles for their street-flavored sound and urban appeal. The group has been mentioned and sampled in songs by a number of hip-hop artists including Notorious B.I.G., Twista, Jay-Z, Insane Clown Posse, Big K.R.I.T., David Banner, Bump J, Wale, Freddie Gibbs, Bun B, Tyga, CyHi the Prynce, Young Thug, Bryson Tiller and most notably Drake, who, along with J. Cole released a song titled "Jodeci Freestyle" in June 2013. The song pays homage to the group and samples "4 U", an interlude from "The Show, the After Party, the Hotel". On October 19, 2014, a Drake song titled "How About Now" leaked to the internet. The song samples Jodeci's "My Heart Belongs To U", and was later released in 2015 as a bonus track on the physical release of Drake's album/mixtape "If You're Reading This It's Too Late".


title: Jodeci

text: Mariah Carey repeatedly mentions Jodeci in her song "The Impossible" from her album "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel", which sampled "Forever My Lady". She also samples Jodeci's "Freek'n You" in her song "Makin' It Last All Night" featuring Jermaine Dupri. Additionally, she sampled a line from "Bring On Da' Funk" in her song "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)" on her album "Glitter".


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: Michael John Gordon is an Australian composer, record producer, musician, and sound designer, composing music primarily for video games.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: Gordon has composed for several first-person shooters, including "LawBreakers", "", "," "Prey," the 2016 reboot of "Doom" and its sequel "Doom Eternal", "", and seasons one and two of the 2013 fighting game "Killer Instinct."


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: Gordon began his musical career as a jazz / blues guitarist in his teens. He first began to work as a sound designer with Pandemic Studios, where he contributed additional sound design for "Destroy All Humans! 2". In 2013, he scored the first season of the fighting video game, "Killer Instinct", a reboot of the original 1994 title. The following year, Gordon scored the second season of "Killer Instinct" and the action-adventure first-person shooter "" (developed by MachineGames). He returned to the "Wolfenstein" series in 2015 to compose the score for "," a prequel to "."


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: In 2016, Gordon completed the score for the science fiction first-person shooter, "Doom", a sequel of the 1993 game that was developed by id Software. His score for "Doom" won a number of awards including a D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, SXSW Gaming Award for Excellence in Musical Score, The Game Awards Best Music/Sound Design and was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award for Best Music.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: In 2017, Gordon completed the score for the horror first-person shooter, "Prey", developed by Arkane Studios. He also worked alongside Martin Stig Andersen to again return to the "Wolfenstein" series, scoring "", developed by MachineGames.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: In 2020, Gordon completed the score of "Doom Eternal"; while the music for the game was once again well-received, circumstances around the soundtrack release led to a public falling out between Gordon and id Software and a parting of ways. In November 2022, Gordon addressed this dispute in a lengthy statement on Medium.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: On 23 June 2020 British rock band Bring Me the Horizon announced they would be working with Gordon on their upcoming release. Vocalist Oliver Sykes discusses how he fell in love with the "Doom Eternal" soundtrack during quarantine. Being heavily inspired by Gordon's work, the band decided to reach out to him and offer a collaboration. The resulting work, titled "Parasite Eve", was released on 25 June alongside an accompanying music video. The collaboration then expanded into the commercial release, "", released on 30 October 2020.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: Following the release of "Doom Eternal"s OST in April 2020, several online music bloggers and fans noted the disparity in quality between the "Doom" (2016) OST and the one released with "Eternal".


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: On 19 April, Gordon confirmed on Twitter that much of it was not his work. Subsequently, Marty Stratton, an executive producer at id Software, posted an open letter on Reddit that alleged Gordon did not provide the source material for the additional tracks on the OST and that he required a contractual extension to get the OST completed in time.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: Following this, public outcry against Gordon reached a level where he received explicit death threats and graphic messages of intent to harm him and his family. Gordon's message accounts, servers and phones were allegedly inundated with abuse, seriously impacting his mental health.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: On 9 November 2022, Gordon published an article on Medium explaining his side of the story in the form of a defensive rebuttal of the accusations in Stratton's post. It made several statements that the open letter from Stratton contained lies. He called out claims made by Stratton accusing him of not providing the original source material for the soundtrack, and that Bethesda had to grant him an extension to get the OST done, when in reality, he had not even been contracted to create the OST at the time of the delay. This in turn led to his reputation in the industry being harmed.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: Gordon further stated that when his lawyers requested that the open letter be removed in response to this and other evidence, he was instead offered "a six-figure payout" in exchange for a lifetime gag order without the removal of the original letter. He also alleged that he was not compensated for more than half of the music that ended up being used in the final release of the game.


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: According to Gordon's official website, he "utilises a broad range of modern musical sound design and traditional composition techniques in order to be unconstrained by any singular genre,"


title: Mick Gordon (composer)

text: Gordon's work "considers the role of music as a translation of the world in which it exists rather than a simple accompaniment."


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Lee Ho-seok (, born March 1, 1993), known by his stage name Wonho (), is a South Korean singer under Highline Entertainment. He is a former member of the South Korean boy group Monsta X, formed through the Mnet's survival show "No.Mercy", under Starship Entertainment in 2015. He then made his solo debut, with his first EP "", on September 4, 2020.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Prior to his official debut, Wonho was part of a project group called Nu Boyz, along with his labelmates #Gun, Shownu and Jooheon, formed under Starship Entertainment in August 2014. The quartet uploaded multiple tracks to their company's YouTube channel and performed at the opening show of the Starship X concert on December 5, 2014.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: In late December, Starship Entertainment and Mnet launched a competition program called "No.Mercy". On the final episode of the show, Wonho was selected, along with six other participants, including Shownu and Jooheon (former members of Nu Boyz) as a member of Starship Entertainment's new boy group Monsta X.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Wonho debuted in Monsta X, a hip-hop boy group, upon the release of their first extended play "Trespass", on May 14, 2015. Wonho was a vocalist in the group and beginning in 2017 regularly participated in writing, composing and arranging songs for the group.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Since 2018, Wonho has featured in several photoshoots for magazines, as well as partnering with some brands and promoting campaigns by various fashion magazines. He has appeared alongside his groupmates on several occasions, including "Nylon", alongside Shownu in January 2018 and "GQ" in August, in both "Ceci Korea" in June 2018 and "MAPS", with Minhyuk in December, lastly, "Grazia", with Hyungwon in March 2019. He also participated in the collaboration project, with "Elle" and Tom Ford, alongside Shownu, in promotion of Tom Ford's latest perfume line in August 2019. He also made solo appearances, such as a feature in "Dazed" in November 2019.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Wonho has been recognized as the celebrity who focuses on fitness and physique, and in several interviews surrounding his photoshoots, he has talked about healthy habits, and emphasizing the importance of exercising. In October 2018, he partnered with Under Armour, as part of the collaboration with "Dazed", to promote an active and healthy lifestyle. He again promoted healthy lifestyle, as part of a photoshoot for "Elle"s "Body Challenge" campaign, in May 2019.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: On October 31, Starship Entertainment announced Wonho's departure from Monsta X following allegations surrounding him, after rumors about the illegal use of marijuana when he was younger surfaced on social media.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: On March 14, Starship Entertainment released an official statement announcing that the investigation made by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's narcotics investigation team had been concluded; Wonho had been cleared of all allegations and the rumors were false.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Wonho signed with Highline Entertainment, a subsidiary of Starship Entertainment, as a solo artist on April 10. The agency announced that he would be promoting as a solo artist and producer going forward. On May 6, Maverick revealed through a Twitter post that they had signed a management agreement with Wonho for his international activities.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: On August 9, Wonho announced the release of his first solo EP "". On August 14, he then released the pre-release English-language single "Losing You", along with its music video. "Losing You" gained praise for showing Wonho's all-around musicality, including his vocals, participation in the songwriting, composing, and producing of the song. The album was released on September 4 with the title track "Open Mind", accompanied by a music video. Wonho had his debut showcase the same day, hosted through V Live.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Wonho held his first solo concert on September 27. Due to restrictions from COVID-19, the concert was held online through the streaming platform LiveXLive. During his concert, Wonho announced his first comeback, with a new EP, which was originally intended to be released by the end of 2020, although without a set date. He pre-released a song from the upcoming EP "Flash" through his concert.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Wonho's second part of his first EP "" was released on February 26. All five songs from the EP debuted on the "Billboard" World Digital Song Sales chart, occupying twenty percent of the entire World Songs chart for that week.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: He held an online concert "Weneedlove", through LiveXLive on March 28. During the concert, Wonho announced his intention for his next comeback in summer of 2021.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: In May, Wonho released a music video for the song "Ain't About You" from his second part of his first EP, in collaboration with Kiiara.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: On June 15, his American manager, Eshy Gazit announced the launch of a new label venture Intertwine, in partnership with BMG, with Monsta X and Wonho as the first two artists involved in the partnership.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: In July, it was announced that Wonho would release his debut Japanese single album on October 27, with the lead single "On the Way ～Embrace～". On August 4, he pre-released the Japanese version of the song "Lose".


title: Wonho (singer)

text: Wonho made his comeback with his first single album "Obsession" on February 16, with the title track "Eye On You".


title: Wonho (singer)

text: In May, Wonho became the exclusive model of a dual-formulation and diet dual-functional complex product Cent Double.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: From June 3 to July 24, Wonho is set to appear in his first musical with "Equal", a work that reflects on today's chaotic times due to pandemics and conspiracy theories, set in the 17th century Europe, where witches and heresy hunts were rampant. It is a two-person play that captures the metaphor of the COVID-19 era with the desperate desires and twisted fates of Nikola and Theo, two friends driven by the fear of death and extreme loneliness. Wonho will perform as Theo, a bright and cheerful country doctor who struggles to save his friend Nikola, who is dying from an incurable disease.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: On July 6, Highline released the poster and schedule for Wonho's first European tour Facade, through his official SNS. According to the schedule released with the poster, he will be in Munich and Oberhausen, Germany on August 28 and 31, respectively, Madrid, Spain on September 2, and London, England on September 4.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: On August 19, Wonho released the promotional single "Don't hesitate" through Universe Music for the mobile application Universe.


title: Wonho (singer)

text: In September, Wonho is preparing for the release of his second single album "Bittersweet" on October 14, with the title track "Don't Regret".


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (also known as Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls) is a 1995 American detective comedy film and the sequel to "" (1994), and the second installment of "Ace Ventura" franchise. Jim Carrey reprises his role as the title character Ace Ventura, a detective who specializes in retrieval of tame and captive animals, and has been summoned to Africa to locate a missing bat. Ian McNeice, Simon Callow, and Sophie Okonedo co-star. Tommy Davidson, who co-starred with Carrey on the show "In Living Color", makes a cameo appearance in the film. The film was written and directed by Carrey's close friend Steve Oedekerk, who had also collaborated in the production and as a character consultant for the first film.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: In the Himalayas, after a failed rescue mission results in a raccoon falling to its death (a parody of "Cliffhanger"), Ace Ventura succumbs to severe depression and joins a Tibetan monastery. Once he has recovered, he is approached by Fulton Greenwall, an English correspondent working for the consulate of Bonai Province in the fictional African country of Nibia. Because Ace is a liability for the monastery, the Grand Abbot gives Ace excuses to justify his departure, and sends him off with Greenwall.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: Greenwall is subjected to Ventura's questionable behavior when he starts mimicking different mating calls, and his reckless driving when they head along to Africa, warning him about the hostility of eastern lowland gorillas, as it is mating season. Greenwall wants Ventura to find the Great White bat 'Shikaka', a sacred animal of the native Wachati tribe, which disappeared shortly after being offered as dowry of the Wachati Princess, who is set to wed the Wachootoo Prince in a marriage of state. After arriving in Nibia and meeting with consul Vincent Cadby, Ace begins his investigation, but must overcome his fear of bats in order to succeed.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: Accompanied by his pet capuchin monkey Spike, Ace begins his search for the missing bat. He eventually befriends the tribe's princess, who tries to seduce Ace. However, Ace admits his oath to clerical celibacy. Ace also befriends the tribal prince, Ouda, who assists Ace. Ace's investigation involves eliminating obvious suspects—animal traders, poachers, and a safari park owner among others—and enduring the growing escalations of threat between the Wachati and the Wachootoo. After being attacked with drugged blow-darts, Ace suspects the medicine-man of the Wachootoo of taking the bat, as he strongly disapproves of the wedding.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: He and Ouda sneak into the Wachootoo tribal village with hopes of finding the bat, and are soon captured. The Wachootoo mistake Ace as the "White Devil", and after Ouda poorly translates Ace's words, they are convinced he wants to fight them and have him go through many painful and humiliating challenges to gain their trust. He creatively passes them all, and his final challenge is a 'Circle of Death' fight with their toughest warrior—who, although tiny, humiliatingly defeats Ace. However, Ace's antics entertain the Wachootoo, who grant Ace their trust and release him.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: Despite this, the Wachootoo declare that if the bat is not returned in time, they will declare war on the Wachati tribe. As a parting joke, Ace is shot in the buttock by a non-drugged blow-dart by the Chief to make his people laugh again. As he and Ouda walk back to the village, Ace realizes the dart he was shot with earlier is not the same as the one he was just shot with—meaning that the Wachootoo didn't take Shikaka. He also determines that the dart which shot him earlier was carved from a rare red fungus-bearing acala. This leads him to find two Australian poachers with the bat, and he distracts them by mimicking a Silverback mating call. Unfortunately, they don't fall for it and shoot the initial darts into him, take him away and attempt to kill him by tying him to a raft which is sent over a waterfall.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: After coming to, Ace survives and wrestles a Nile crocodile. Ace tries to figure out how the poachers are involved with the war between the tribes. Flummoxed by the case, Ace consults the Grand Abbot via astral projection. Advised by the Abbot, Ace deduces that Cadby has taken the bat, having planned to let the tribes destroy each other so that he can then take possession of the numerous bat caves containing guano to sell as fertilizer worth billions. When Ace confronts Cadby, he learns he was hired as Cadby's alibi once an investigation takes place, and is arrested by tribal security chief Hitu. Ace escapes with help from an Asian elephant who joins him and more jungle animals to raid Cadby's house. Cadby tries to shoot Ace, but is stopped by Greenwall when he punches him in the face. Cadby escapes with the bat in a Land Rover, but Ace follows him in a monster truck. Ace destroys Cadby's car, leaving the bat cage lodged in a tree.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: Ace, despite his chronic fear of bats, courageously yet dramatically grabs the bat with his bare hands and returns it just as the tribes are about to fight each other on the battlefield. Cadby, watching nearby, is noticed by Ouda, who calls him the "White Devil" and incites both tribes to pursue him, giving Ace more time. After escaping, Cadby encounters an amorous male Silverback eastern lowland gorilla, who mistakes him for a mate. The Wachati Princess is married to the Wachootoo Prince, who is revealed to be the 'tiny, wild' warrior who humiliated Ace during the 'Circle of Death' tribal challenge earlier. Moments later, it is discovered that the young bride is no longer a virgin, on Ace's account. Despite this, peace between the once-separate tribes is achieved when the two tribes join together and chase after Ace.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: Filming began under Tom DeCerchio, who later directed "Celtic Pride" (1996). Because of the success of the first film, Morgan Creek Entertainment Group gave lead-actor Jim Carrey the power to decide the director. In April 1995, Carrey had DeCerchio replaced with Steve Oedekerk, who had worked on the film's predecessor as a script consultant and wrote the screenplay for this film, but had no previous experience with directing feature films. Spike Jonze wanted to direct the film, but Carrey turned him down as he also had no experience but he mainly did not know him well enough. Carrey claims this to be one of his biggest regrets. However, Carrey reiterated he does not regret enlisting Oedekerk to direct as they were friends with creative similarities, which included improvising, changing scenes during filming, and had a vast understanding of the main character. In June 1995, scenes were shot in South Carolina. The following month, filming took place outside Hondo, near San Antonio, Texas.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: Part of the film was also shot in British Columbia, Canada. The film was shot in Super 35. Carrey was paid $10 million for his role due to Oedekerk's authority as director.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: On September 3, 2013, "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" was released on Blu-ray by Warner Home Video, and in April 23, 2019 was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: The film grossed $37,804,076 during its opening weekend, taking the #1 spot. In the U.S. and Canada, the film grossed $108.3 million, and in other territories, it grossed $104 million. The worldwide gross was $212.3 million. Against its $30 million budget, "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" was a major financial success.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 21% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Nature Calls" in this "Ace Ventura" sequel, and it's answered by the law of diminishing returns." On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: A standalone made-for-TV sequel, titled "Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective", was released in 2009 to poor reception.


title: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

text: In March 2021, there were reports that a direct sequel under the working title "Ace Ventura 3" is in development at Amazon Studios. Pat Casey and Josh Miller, writers of "Sonic the Hedgehog", will serve as writers for the film. Although there are no official plans for the film, Jim Carrey joked that he would star in the movie if Christopher Nolan were to direct the film.


title: High-Rise Invasion

text: High school girl Yuri Honjō is transported to a world full of skyscrapers and suspension bridges connecting them. She then finds herself being hunted by mysterious figures wearing masks. She later discovers that her brother, Rika, is also trapped in this world. She thereupon encounters other teenagers in the same situation, but it is not clear if they will be friends or foes.


title: High-Rise Invasion

text: The manga was serialized online in DeNA's Manga Box app from December 5, 2013 to April 4, 2019. Kodansha held the license to publish the series and compiled it into twenty-one "tankōbon" volumes, while Seven Seas Entertainment published it in two-in-one omnibus volumes in North America from June 2018 to October 2021. A sequel manga, titled "High-Rise Invasion Arrive", was serialized in Kodansha's Magazine Pocket website and app from July 28, 2019 to April 24, 2021 and was compiled into seven volumes.


title: High-Rise Invasion

text: At the Netflix Anime Festival on October 26, 2020, an original net animation (ONA) anime series adaptation was announced with a February 2021 release window. In mid-January 2021, Netflix revealed that the series was scheduled for a February 25 release on the streaming service. The series was animated by Zero-G and directed by Masahiro Takata, with Touko Machida handling series' composition, Yōichi Ueda designing the characters, and tatsuo and Youichi Sakai composing the series' music. EMPiRE performed the opening theme "HON-NO," while Have a Nice Day! performed the ending theme .


title: High-Rise Invasion

text: Jean-Karlo Lemus and Steve Jones reviewed the series in their "This Week in Anime" segment for Anime News Network. Lemus said that the series does not give the "best first impression," and while he hated it when he first started watching, he became "indifferent," comparing it to "Gantz", adding that the series "preoccupied itself with panty shots and various states of undress." Jones, however, praised the portrayal of the villains and hoped that a second season of the series would be produced, while acknowledging it is "not for everyone."


title: Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States

text: The demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States encompass the gender, ethnicity, and religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the 116 people who have been appointed and confirmed as justices to the Supreme Court. Some of these characteristics have been raised as an issue since the court was established in 1789. For its first 180 years, justices were almost always white male Protestants of Anglo or Northwestern European descent.


text: Prior to the 20th century, a few Catholics were appointed, but concerns about diversity on the court were mainly in terms of geographic diversity, to represent all geographic regions of the country, as opposed to ethnic, religious, or gender diversity. The 20th century saw the first appointment of justices who were Jewish (Louis Brandeis, 1916), African-American (Thurgood Marshall, 1967), female (Sandra Day O'Connor, 1981), and Italian-American (Antonin Scalia, 1986). The first appointment of a Hispanic justice was in the 21st century with Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, with the possible exception of Justice Benjamin Cardozo, a Sephardi Jew of Portuguese descent, who was appointed in 1932.


text: In spite of the interest in the court's demographics and the symbolism accompanying the inevitably political appointment process, and the views of some commentators that no demographic considerations should arise in the selection process, the gender, race, educational background or religious views of the justices has played little documented role in their jurisprudence. For example, the opinions of the first two African-American justices reflected radically different judicial philosophies; William Brennan and Antonin Scalia shared Catholic faith and a Harvard Law School education, but shared little in the way of jurisprudential philosophies. The court's first two female justices voted together no more often than with their male colleagues, and historian Thomas R. Marshall writes that no particular "female perspective" can be discerned from their opinions.


text: For most of the existence of the court, geographic diversity was a key concern of presidents in choosing justices to appoint. This was prompted in part by the early practice of Supreme Court justices also "riding circuit"—individually hearing cases in different regions of the country. In 1789, the United States was divided into judicial circuits, and from that time until 1891, Supreme Court justices also acted as judges within those individual circuits. George Washington was careful to make appointments "with no two justices serving at the same time hailing from the same state". Abraham Lincoln broke with this tradition during the Civil War, and "by the late 1880s presidents disregarded it with increasing frequency".


text: Although the importance of regionalism declined, it still arose from time to time. For example, in appointing Benjamin Cardozo in 1929, President Hoover was as concerned about the controversy over having three New York justices on the court as he was about having two Jewish justices. David M. O'Brien notes that "from the appointment of John Rutledge from South Carolina in 1789 until the retirement of Hugo Black [from Alabama] in 1971, with the exception of the Reconstruction decade of 1866–1876, there was always a southerner on the bench. Until 1867, the sixth seat was reserved as the "southern seat". Until Cardozo's appointment in 1932, the third seat was reserved for New Englanders." The westward expansion of the U.S. led to concerns that the western states should be represented on the court as well, which purportedly prompted William Howard Taft to make his 1910 appointment of Willis Van Devanter of Wyoming.


text: Geographic balance was sought in the 1970s, when Nixon attempted to employ a "Southern strategy", hoping to secure support from Southern states by nominating judges from the region. Nixon unsuccessfully nominated Southerners Clement Haynsworth of South Carolina and G. Harrold Carswell of Florida, before finally succeeding with the nomination of Harry Blackmun of Minnesota. The issue of regional diversity was again raised with the 2010 retirement of John Paul Stevens, who had been appointed from the midwestern Seventh Circuit, leaving the court with all but one Justice having been appointed from states on the East Coast.


text: , the court has a majority from the Northeastern United States, with five justices coming from states to the north and east of Washington, D.C.: two justices born in New York (two in New York City), one in New Jersey, and two from Washington D.C. itself. The remaining four justices come from Georgia, California, Colorado, and Indiana; until the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana in 2020, the most recent justice from the Midwest had been John Paul Stevens of Illinois who retired in 2010. Contemporary justices may be associated with multiple states. Many nominees are appointed while serving in states or districts other than their hometown or home state. Chief Justice John Roberts, for example, was born in Buffalo, New York, but moved to Indiana at the age of five, where he grew up. After law school, Roberts worked in Washington, D.C. while living in Maryland. Thus, three states may claim to be his home state. Justice Barrett is another example; although her commission identifies her as being from Indiana, she was born in New Orleans, raised in the adjacent suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, and did not live in Indiana until law school.


text: Some states have been over-represented, partly because there were fewer states from which early justices could be appointed. New York has produced fifteen justices, three of whom have served as chief justice. Ohio has produced ten justices, including two chief justices; Massachusetts nine (including Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan); and Virginia eight, including three chief justices. There have been six justices each from Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Maryland (the latter including current chief justice John Roberts and current associate justice Brett Kavanaugh); and five each from Kentucky and New Jersey. States that have produced four justices include California, Illinois (one chief and three associates each), and Georgia.


text: Despite the efforts to achieve geographic balance, only seven justices have ever hailed from states admitted after or during the Civil War. Nineteen states have never produced a Supreme Court justice. In order of admission to the Union these are:


text: Six justices were born outside the United States. These included James Wilson (1789–1798), born in Ceres, Fife, Scotland; James Iredell (1790–1799), born in Lewes, England; and William Paterson (1793–1806), born in County Antrim, then in the Kingdom of Ireland. Justice David J. Brewer (1889–1910) was born farthest from the U.S., in Smyrna, in the Ottoman Empire, (now İzmir, Turkey), where his parents were missionaries at the time. George Sutherland (1922–1939) was born in Buckinghamshire, England. The last foreign-born justice, and the only one of these for whom English was a second language, was Felix Frankfurter (1939–1962), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now in Austria). The Constitution imposes no citizenship requirement on federal judges.


text: All Supreme Court justices were white and of European heritage until the appointment of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Justice, in 1967. Since then, only three other non-white justices have been appointed: Marshall's African-American successor, Clarence Thomas, in 1991, Latina Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, and African-American Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022.


text: The majority of white justices have been Protestants of British ethnicity. There have been several justices of Irish or Ulster Irish descent, with William Paterson born in Ireland to an Ulster Scots Protestant family and Joseph McKenna, Edward Douglas White, Pierce Butler, Frank Murphy, William J. Brennan Jr., Anthony Kennedy, and Brett Kavanaugh being of Irish Catholic origin. There have been five justices of French ancestry in John Jay, Gabriel Duval, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, Joseph Rucker Lamar and Amy Coney Barrett, with all except the Catholic Barrett being Protestants of Huguenot origins. Many justices – including John Jay, William Johnson, and Willis Van Devanter – have been of Dutch Protestant origin, whilst the only two Scandinavian Americans to serve on the court have been Chief Justices Earl Warren and William Rehnquist.


text: Up until the 1980s, only eight justices of "central, eastern, or southern European derivation" had been appointed, and even among these justices, five of them "were of Germanic background, which includes Austrian, German-Bohemian, and Swiss origins (John Catron, Samuel F. Miller, Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and Warren Burger)", with Brandeis and Frankfurter being of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, while only one justice was of non-Germanic, Southern European descent (Benjamin N. Cardozo, of Sephardic Jewish descent). Cardozo, appointed to the court in 1932, was the first justice known to have non-Germanic, non-Anglo-Saxon or non-Irish ancestry and the first justice of Southern European descent. Both of Justice Cardozo's parents descended from Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who fled to Holland during the Spanish Inquisition, then to London, before arriving in New York prior to the American Revolution. At least two, Abe Fortas and Arthur Goldberg, were of Eastern European Ashkenazi descent.


text: Justice Antonin Scalia, who served from 1986 to 2016, and Justice Samuel Alito, who has served since 2006, are the first justices of Italian descent to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia's father and both maternal grandparents as well as both of Justice Alito's parents were born in Italy. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born to a Jewish father who immigrated from Russia at age 13 and a Jewish mother who was born four months after her parents immigrated from Poland.


text: Amongst white ethnicities, according to a 1959 article, there had never been a Justice with any Slavic ancestry.


text: No African-American candidate was given serious consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court until the election of John F. Kennedy, who weighed the possibility of appointing William H. Hastie of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Hastie had been the first African-American elevated to a Court of Appeals when Harry S. Truman had so appointed him in 1949, and by the time of the Kennedy Administration, it was widely anticipated that Hastie might be appointed to the Supreme Court. Kennedy gave serious consideration to this appointment, ensuring that this "represented the first time in American history that an African American was an actual contender for the high court".


text: The first African-American appointed to the court was Thurgood Marshall, appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, saying that this was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69—11 on August 31, 1967. Johnson confidently predicted to one biographer, Doris Kearns Goodwin, that a lot of black baby boys would be named "Thurgood" in honor of this choice (in fact, Kearns's research of birth records in New York and Boston indicates that Johnson's prophecy did not come true).


text: The second was Clarence Thomas, appointed by George H. W. Bush to succeed Marshall in 1991. Bush initially wanted to nominate Thomas to replace William Brennan, who stepped down in 1990, but Bush decided that Thomas had not yet had enough experience as a judge after only months on the federal bench. Bush nominated New Hampshire Supreme Court judge David Souter (who is not African-American) instead. When Marshall retired due to health reasons in 1991, Bush nominated Thomas, preserving the racial composition of the court.


text: On February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden announced the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to a seat vacated by the retirement of Stephen Breyer, making Jackson the first African-American woman to be nominated to the court. The Senate confirmed Jackson on April 7, 2022.


text: The words "Latino" and "Hispanic" are sometimes given distinct meanings, with "Latino" referring to persons of Latin American descent, and "Hispanic" referring to persons having an ancestry, language or culture traceable to Spain or to the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, as well as to persons of Latin American descent, whereas the term "Lusitanic" usually refers to persons having an ancestry, language or culture traceable to Portugal specifically.


text: Sonia Sotomayor – nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and sworn in on August 8 – is the first Supreme Court Justice of Latin American descent. Born in New York City of Puerto Rican parents, she has been known to refer to herself as a "Nuyorican". Sotomayor is also generally regarded as the first Hispanic justice, although some sources claim that this distinction belongs to former Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo.


text: It has been claimed that "only since the George H. W. Bush administration have Hispanic candidates received serious consideration from presidents in the selection process", and that Emilio M. Garza (considered for the vacancy eventually given to Clarence Thomas) was the first Hispanic judge for whom such an appointment was contemplated. Subsequently, Bill Clinton was reported by several sources to have considered José A. Cabranes for a Supreme Court nomination on both occasions when a court vacancy opened during the Clinton presidency. The possibility of an Hispanic justice returned during the George W. Bush Presidency, with various reports suggesting that Emilio M. Garza, Alberto Gonzales, and Consuelo M. Callahan were under consideration for the vacancy left by the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor. O'Connor's seat eventually went to Samuel Alito, however. Speculation about a Hispanic nomination arose again after the election of Barack Obama. In 2009, Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor, a woman of Puerto Rican descent, to be the first unequivocally Hispanic Justice. Both the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and the Hispanic National Bar Association count Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice. In 2020, President Trump included Cuban-American judge Barbara Lagoa on a list of potential nominees to the court, and Lagoa was reported to be one of several front-runners to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ultimately, Amy Coney Barrett was nominated.


text: Some historians contend that Cardozo – a Sephardic Jew believed to be of distant Portuguese descent – should also be counted as the first Hispanic Justice. Schmidhauser wrote in 1979 that "among the large ethnic groupings of European origin which have never been represented upon the Supreme Court are the Italians, Southern Slavs, and Hispanic Americans." The National Hispanic Center for Advanced Studies and Policy Analysis wrote in 1982 that the Supreme Court "has never had an Hispanic Justice", and the "Hispanic American Almanac" similarly reported in 1996 that "no Hispanic has yet sat on the U.S. Supreme Court". However, Segal and Spaeth state: "Though it is often claimed that no Hispanics have served on the Court, it is not clear why Benjamin Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew of Spanish heritage, should not count." They identify a number of other sources that present conflicting views as to Cardozo's ethnicity, with one simply labeling him "Iberian." In 2007, the "Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History" also listed Cardozo as "the first Hispanic named to the Supreme Court of the United States."


text: The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, widely described in media accounts as the first Hispanic nominee, drew more attention to the question of Cardozo's ethnicity. Cardozo biographer Andrew Kaufman questioned the usage of the term "hispanic" during Cardozo's lifetime, commenting: "Well, I think he regarded himself as Sephardic Jew whose ancestors came from the Iberian Peninsula." However, "no one has ever firmly established that the family's roots were, in fact, in Portugal". It has also been asserted that Cardozo himself "confessed in 1937 that his family preserved neither the Spanish language nor Iberian cultural traditions". By contrast, Cardozo made his own translations of authoritative legal works written in French and German.


text: Asian-American jurists are poorly represented at all levels of federal judicial system, let alone being Supreme Court justices. According to the Center for American Progress (2019), among active federal judges serving on U.S. courts of appeals, only 10 were Asian Americans (5.7 percent). According to the study by the California Justice Goodwin Liu (2017), of the 94 U.S. attorneys, only three are Asian American; and only 4 of the 2,437 elected prosecutors are Asian American.


text: Public opinion about ethnic diversity on the court "varies widely depending on the poll question's wording". For example, in two polls taken in 1991, one resulted in half of respondents agreeing that it was "important that there always be at least one black person" on the court while the other had only 20 percent agreeing with that sentiment, and with 77 percent agreeing that "race should never be a factor in choosing Supreme Court justices".


text: Of the 116 justices, 110 (94.8 percent) have been men. All Supreme Court justices were males until 1981, when Ronald Reagan fulfilled his 1980 campaign promise to place a woman on the court, which he did with the appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor. O'Connor was later joined on the court by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993. After O'Connor retired in 2006, Ginsburg was joined by Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who were successfully appointed to the court in 2009 and 2010, respectively, by Barack Obama. In September 2020, following Ginsburg's death, Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to succeed her. Barrett was confirmed the following month. Only one woman, Harriet Miers, has been nominated to the court unsuccessfully. Her nomination to succeed O'Connor by George W. Bush was withdrawn under fire from both parties, and also marked the first time when a woman was nominated to replace another woman on the court. The nomination of Barrett was the first successful nomination for a woman to succeed another woman. Joe Biden's 2022 nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to a seat vacated by the retirement of Stephen Breyer makes Jackson the first African-American woman to be nominated to the court. The Senate confirmed Jackson on April 7, 2022.


text: Substantial public sentiment in support of appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court has been expressed since at least as early as 1930, when an editorial in "The Christian Science Monitor" encouraged Herbert Hoover to consider Ohio justice Florence E. Allen or assistant attorney general Mabel Walker Willebrandt. Franklin Delano Roosevelt later appointed Allen to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit—making her "one of the highest ranking female jurists in the world at that time". However, neither Roosevelt nor his successors over the following two decades gave strong consideration to female candidates for the court. Harry Truman considered such an appointment but was dissuaded by concerns raised by justices then serving that a woman on the court "would inhibit their conference deliberations", which were marked by informality.


text: President Richard Nixon named Mildred Lillie, then serving on the Second District Court of Appeal of California, as a potential nominee to fill one of two vacancies on the court in 1971. However, Lillie was quickly deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association, and no formal proceedings were ever set with respect to her potential nomination. Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist were then successfully nominated to fill those vacancies.


text: In 1991, a poll found that 53 percent of Americans felt it "important that there always be at least one woman" on the court. However, when O'Connor stepped down from the court, leaving Justice Ginsburg as the lone remaining woman, only one in seven persons polled found it "essential that a woman be nominated to replace" O'Connor.


text: All but a handful of Supreme Court justices have been married. William H. Moody, Frank Murphy, Benjamin Cardozo, and James Clark McReynolds were all lifelong bachelors. In addition, retired justice David Souter and current justice Elena Kagan have never been married. William O. Douglas was the first Justice to divorce while on the court and also had the most marriages of any Justice, with four. Justice John Paul Stevens divorced his first wife in 1979, marrying his second wife later that year. Sonia Sotomayor was the first female justice to be appointed as an unmarried woman, having divorced in 1983, long before her nomination in 2009. Of the six women who have been appointed to the Court, O'Connor and Ginsburg were the only two military spouses, both having accompanied their spouses to their service posts, though in both cases their spouses had served for only brief periods, decades prior to their appointments.


text: Several justices have become widowers while on the bench. The 1792 death of Elizabeth Rutledge, wife of Justice John Rutledge, contributed to the mental health problems that led to the rejection of his recess appointment. Roger B. Taney survived his wife, Anne, by twenty years. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. resolutely continued working on the court for several years after the death of his wife. William Rehnquist was a widower for the last fourteen years of his service on the court, his wife Natalie having died on October 17, 1991 after suffering from ovarian cancer. With the death of Martin D. Ginsburg in June 2010, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first woman to be widowed while serving on the court.


text: With regard to sexual orientation, no Supreme Court justice has identified themself as anything other than heterosexual, and no incontrovertible evidence of a justice having any other sexual orientation has ever been uncovered. However, the personal lives of several justices and nominees have attracted speculation.


text: G. Harrold Carswell was unsuccessfully nominated by Richard Nixon in 1970 and was convicted in 1976 of battery for making an "unnatural and lascivious" advance to a male police officer working undercover in a Florida men's room. Some therefore claim him as the only gay or bisexual person nominated to the court thus far. If so, it is unlikely that Nixon was aware of it; White House Counsel John Dean later wrote of Carswell that "[w]hile Richard Nixon was always looking for historical firsts, nominating a homosexual to the high court would not have been on his list".


text: Speculation has been recorded about the sexual orientation of a few justices who were lifelong bachelors, but no unambiguous evidence exists that they were gay. Perhaps the greatest body of circumstantial evidence surrounds Frank Murphy, who was dogged by "rumors of homosexuality ... all his adult life".


text: For more than 40 years, Edward G. Kemp was Frank Murphy's devoted, trusted companion. Like Murphy, Kemp was a lifelong bachelor. From college until Murphy's death, the pair found creative ways to work and live together. [...] When Murphy appeared to have the better future in politics, Kemp stepped into a supportive, secondary role.


text: As well as Murphy's close relationship with Kemp, Murphy's biographer, historian Sidney Fine, found in Murphy's personal papers a letter that "if the words mean what they say, refers to a homosexual encounter some years earlier between Murphy and the writer." However, the letter's veracity cannot be confirmed, and a review of all the evidence led Fine to conclude that he "could not stick his neck out and say [Murphy] was gay".


text: Speculation has also surrounded Benjamin Cardozo, whose celibacy was proposed to suggest repressed homosexuality or asexuality. The fact that he was unmarried and was personally tutored by the writer Horatio Alger (alleged to have had sexual relations with boys) led some of Cardozo's biographers to insinuate that Cardozo was homosexual, but no real evidence exists to corroborate this possibility. Constitutional law scholar Jeffrey Rosen noted in a "The New York Times Book Review" of Richard Polenberg's book on Cardozo:


text: Polenberg describes Cardozo's lifelong devotion to his older sister Nell, with whom he lived in New York until her death in 1929. When asked why he had never married, Cardozo replied, quietly and sadly, "I never could give Nellie the second place in my life." Polenberg suggests that friends may have stressed Cardozo's devotion to his sister to discourage rumors "that he was sexually dysfunctional, or had an unusually low sexual drive or was homosexual." But he produces no evidence to support any of these possibilities, except to note that friends, in describing Cardozo, used words like "beautiful", "exquisite", "sensitive" or "delicate." Andrew Kaufman, author of "Cardozo", a biography published in 2000, notes that "Although one cannot be absolutely certain, it seems highly likely that Cardozo lived a celibate life". Judge Learned Hand is quoted in the book as saying about Cardozo: "He [had] no trace of homosexuality anyway".


text: More recently, when David Souter was nominated to the court, "conservative groups expressed concern to the White House ... that the president's bachelor nominee might conceivably be a homosexual". Similar questions were raised regarding the sexual orientation of unmarried nominee Elena Kagan. However, no evidence was ever produced regarding Souter's sexual orientation, and Kagan's apparent heterosexuality was attested by colleagues familiar with her dating history.


text: When the Supreme Court was established in 1789, the first members came from among the ranks of the Founding Fathers and were almost uniformly Protestant. Of the 116 justices who have been appointed to the court, 92 have been from various Protestant denominations, 15 have been Catholics (one other justice, Sherman Minton, converted to Catholicism after leaving the court). Another, Neil Gorsuch, was raised in the Catholic Church but later attended an Episcopal church, though without specifying the denomination to which he felt he belonged. Eight have been Jewish and one, David Davis, had no known religious affiliation. Three of the 17 chief justices have been Catholics, and one Jewish justice, Abe Fortas, was unsuccessfully nominated to be chief justice.


text: Most Supreme Court justices have been Protestant Christians. These have included 33 Episcopalians, 18 Presbyterians, nine Unitarians, five Methodists, three Baptists, two Disciples of Christ, and lone representatives of various other denominations. William Rehnquist and William R. Day were the court's only Lutherans. Noah Swayne was a Quaker. Some fifteen Protestant justices did not adhere to a particular denomination. The religious beliefs of James Wilson, one of the earliest justices, have been the subject of some dispute, as there are writings from various points of his life from which it can be argued that he leaned towards Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, Thomism, or Deism; it has been deemed likely that he eventually favored some form of Christianity. Baptist denominations and other evangelical churches have been underrepresented on the court relative to the population of the United States, and entirely unrepresented since the retirement of Methodist Harry Blackmun in 1994. Conversely, mainline Protestant churches historically were overrepresented.


text: Following the retirement of John Paul Stevens in June 2010, the court had an entirely non-Protestant composition for the first time in its history. Neil Gorsuch was the first member of a mainline Protestant denomination to sit on the court since Stevens' retirement. Ketanji Brown Jackson is a non-denominational Protestant.


text: The first Catholic justice, Roger B. Taney, was appointed chief justice in 1836 by Andrew Jackson. The second, Edward Douglass White, was appointed as an associate justice in 1894, but also went on to become chief justice. Joseph McKenna was appointed in 1898, placing two Catholics on the court until White's death in 1921. This period marked the beginning of an inconsistently observed "tradition" of having a "Catholic seat" on the court.


text: Other Catholic justices included Pierce Butler (appointed 1923) and Frank Murphy (appointed 1940). Sherman Minton, appointed in 1949, was a Protestant during his time on the court. To some, however, his wife's Catholic faith implied a "Catholic seat". Minton joined his wife's church in 1961, five years after he retired from the court. Minton was succeeded by a Catholic, however, when President Eisenhower appointed William J. Brennan to that seat. Eisenhower sought a Catholic to appoint to the court—in part because there had been no Catholic justice since Murphy's death in 1949, and in part because Eisenhower was directly lobbied by Francis Cardinal Spellman of the Archdiocese of New York to make such an appointment. Brennan was then the lone Catholic justice until the appointment of Antonin Scalia in 1986, and Anthony Kennedy in 1988.


text: Like Sherman Minton, Clarence Thomas was not a Catholic at the time he was appointed to the court. Thomas was raised Catholic and briefly attended Conception Seminary College, a Catholic seminary, but had joined the Protestant denomination of his wife after their marriage. At some point in the late 1990s, Thomas returned to Catholicism. In 2005, John Roberts became the third Catholic Chief Justice and the fourth Catholic on the court. Shortly thereafter, Samuel Alito became the fifth on the court, and the eleventh in the history of the court. Alito's appointment gave the court a Catholic majority for the first time in its history. Besides Thomas, at least one other Justice, James F. Byrnes, was raised as a Catholic, but converted to a different branch of Christianity prior to serving on the court.


text: In contrast to historical patterns, the court has gone from having a "Catholic seat" to being what some have characterized as a "Catholic court". The reasons for that are subject to debate. The fact that most recent Catholic appointees were also ideologically conservative has led some partisan critics to derisively refer to the court as "a Catholic boys club". However in May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated a Catholic woman, Sonia Sotomayor, to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Her confirmation raised the number of Catholics on the court to six, compared to three non-Catholics. With Antonin Scalia's death in February 2016, the number of Catholic justices went back to five. Scalia's replacement, Neil Gorsuch, appointed in 2017, was raised Catholic but attends and is a member of an Episcopal church; it is unclear if he identifies as a Catholic as well as belonging to the Episcopal Church. Following Anthony Kennedy's retirement in July 2018, the number of Catholic justices remained unchanged as he was succeeded by Catholic Brett Kavanaugh. In September 2020, following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Donald Trump nominated another Catholic, Amy Coney Barrett to succeed her.


text: In 1853, President Millard Fillmore offered to appoint Louisiana Senator Judah P. Benjamin to be the first Jewish justice, and "The New York Times" reported (on February 15, 1853) that "if the President nominates Benjamin, the Democrats are determined to confirm him". However, Benjamin declined the offer, and ultimately became Secretary of State for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The first Jewish nominee, Louis Brandeis, was appointed in 1916, after a tumultuous hearing process. The 1932 appointment of Benjamin Cardozo raised mild controversy for placing two Jewish justices on the court at the same time, although the appointment was widely lauded based on Cardozo's qualifications, and the Senate was unanimous in confirming Cardozo. Most Jewish Supreme Court justices were of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, with the exception of Cardozo, who was Sephardic. None of the Jewish Supreme Court justices have practiced Orthodox Judaism while on the court, although Abe Fortas was raised Orthodox.


text: Cardozo was succeeded by another Jewish justice, Felix Frankfurter, but Brandeis was succeeded by Protestant William O. Douglas. Negative reaction to the appointment of the early Jewish justices did not exclusively come from outside the court. Justice James Clark McReynolds, a blatant anti-semite, refused to speak to Brandeis for three years following the latter's appointment and when Brandeis retired in 1939, did not sign the customary dedicatory letter sent to court members on their retirement. During Benjamin Cardozo's swearing in ceremony McReynolds pointedly read a newspaper muttering "another one" and did not attend that of Felix Frankfurter, exclaiming "My God, another Jew on the Court!"


text: Frankfurter was followed by Arthur Goldberg and Abe Fortas, each of whom filled what became known as the "Jewish seat". After Fortas resigned in 1969, he was replaced by Protestant Harry Blackmun. No Jewish justices were nominated thereafter until Ronald Reagan nominated Douglas H. Ginsburg in 1987, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Lewis F. Powell; however, this nomination was withdrawn, and the court remained without any Jewish justices until 1993, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg (unrelated to Douglas Ginsburg) was appointed to replace Byron White. Ginsburg was followed in relatively quick succession by the appointment of Stephen Breyer, also Jewish, in 1994 to replace Harry Blackmun. In 2010, the confirmation of President Barack Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the court ensured that three Jewish justices would serve simultaneously. Prior to this confirmation, conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan stated that, "If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats". At the time of his remarks, 6.4 percent of justices in the history of the court had been Jewish. Justice Ginsburg's death in 2020 and Breyer's retirement in 2022 reduced the number to one.


text: With Breyer's appointment in 1994, there were two Catholic justices, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, and two Jewish justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Clarence Thomas, who had been raised as a Catholic but had attended an Episcopal church after his marriage, returned to Catholicism later in the 1990s. At this point, the four remaining Protestant justices—Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor, and Souter—remained a plurality on the court, but for the first time in the history of the court, Protestants were no longer an absolute majority.


text: The first Catholic plurality on the court occurred in 2005, when Chief Justice Rehnquist was succeeded in office by Chief Justice John Roberts, who became the fourth sitting Catholic justice. On January 31, 2006, Samuel Alito became the fifth sitting Catholic justice, and on August 6, 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the sixth. By contrast, there have only been two Catholic U.S. Presidents, John F. Kennedy (unrelated to Justice Kennedy) and Joe Biden, who was previously the only Catholic to serve as Vice President. There has never been a Jewish U.S. President or Vice President.


text: At the beginning of 2010, Justice John Paul Stevens was the sole remaining Protestant on the court. In April 2010, Justice Stevens announced his retirement, effective as of the court's 2010 summer recess. Upon Justice Stevens' retirement, which formally began on June 28, 2010, the court lacked a Protestant member, marking the first time in its history that it was exclusively composed of Jewish and Catholic justices. Although in January 2017, after seven years with no Protestant justices serving or nominated, President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the court, as noted above it is unclear whether Gorsuch considers himself a Catholic or an Episcopalian. Following the retirement of Justice Kennedy, the Catholic majority on the court was extended by the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh; the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett increased this majority to six Catholic members of the court, or seven if Gorsuch is classified as a Catholic.


text: This development led to some comment. Law school professor Jeffrey Rosen wrote that "it's a fascinating truth that we've allowed religion to drop out of consideration on the Supreme Court, and right now, we have a Supreme Court that religiously at least, by no means looks like America".


text: A number of sizable religious groups, each less than two percent of the total U.S. population, have had no members appointed as justices. These include Orthodox Christians, Mormons, Pentecostals, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and members of Native American religions. George Sutherland has been described as a "lapsed Mormon" because he was raised in the LDS Church, his parents having immigrated to the United States during Sutherland's infancy to join that church. Sutherland's parents soon left the LDS Church and moved to Montana. Sutherland himself also disaffiliated with the faith, but remained in Utah and graduated from Brigham Young Academy in 1881, the only non-Mormon in his class. In 1975, Attorney General Edward H. Levi had listed Dallin H. Oaks, a Mormon who had clerked for Earl Warren and was then president of Brigham Young University, as a potential nominee for Gerald Ford. Ford "crossed Oaks's name off the list early on, noting in the margin that a member of the LDS Church might bring a 'confirmation fight'".


text: No professing atheist has ever been appointed to the court, although some justices have declined to engage in religious activity, or affiliate with a denomination. As an adult, Benjamin Cardozo no longer practiced his faith and identified himself as an agnostic, though he remained proud of his Jewish heritage.


text: Unlike the offices of President, U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, there is no minimum age for Supreme Court justices set forth in the United States Constitution. However, justices tend to be appointed after having made significant achievements in law or politics, which excludes many young potential candidates from consideration. At the same time, justices appointed at too advanced an age will likely have short tenures on the court.


text: The youngest justice ever appointed was Joseph Story, 32 at the time of his appointment in 1812; the oldest was Charles Evans Hughes, who was 67 at the time of his appointment as Chief Justice in 1930. (Hughes had previously been appointed to the court as an associate justice in 1910, at the age of 48, but had resigned in 1916 to run for president). Story went on to serve for 33 years, while Hughes served 11 years after his second appointment. The oldest justice at the time of his initial appointment was Horace Lurton, 65 at the time of his appointment in 1909. Lurton died after only four years on the court. The oldest sitting justice to be elevated to Chief Justice was Hughes' successor, Harlan Fiske Stone, who was 68 at the time of his elevation in 1941. Stone died in 1946, only five years after his elevation. The oldest nominee to the court was South Carolina senator William Smith, nominated in 1837, then aged around 75 (it is known that he was born in 1762, but not the exact date). The Senate confirmed Smith's nomination by a vote of 23–18, but Smith declined to serve. Smith died three years later.


text: Of the justices sitting as of , Amy Coney Barrett is the youngest, at old, while Clarence Thomas is the oldest at . The oldest person to have served on the court was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who stepped down two months shy of his birthday. John Paul Stevens, second only to Holmes, left the court in June 2010, two months after turning 90.


text: The average age of the court as a whole fluctuates over time with the departure of older justices and the appointment of younger people to fill their seats. , the youngest sitting Justice at the time of appointment is Clarence Thomas, who was 43 years old at the time of his confirmation in 1991. Following the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the average age of the court is between 61 and 62 years old. By contrast, just prior to the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist in September 2005, the average age was 71. After Jackson's appointment and confirmation in 2022, the average age of appointment for current justices is between 50 and 51 years old.


text: The longest period of time in which one group of justices has served together occurred from August 3, 1994, when Stephen Breyer was appointed to replace the retired Harry Blackmun, to September 3, 2005, the death of Rehnquist, totaling 11 years and 31 days. From 1789 until 1970, justices served an average of 14.9 years. Those who have stepped down since 1970 have served an average of 25.6 years. The retirement age had jumped from an average of 68 pre-1970 to 79 for justices retiring post-1970. Between 1789 and 1970 there was a vacancy on the court once every 1.91 years. In the next 34 years since the two appointments in 1971, there was a vacancy on average only once every 3.75 years. The typical one-term president has had one appointment opportunity instead of two.


text: Commentators have noted that advances in medical knowledge "have enormously increased the life expectancy of a mature person of an age likely to be considered for appointment to the Supreme Court". Combined with the reduction in responsibilities carried out by modern justices as compared to the early justices, this results in much longer potential terms of service. This has led to proposals such as imposing a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices, or predetermined term limits.


text: Although the Constitution imposes no educational background requirements for federal judges, the work of the court involves complex questions of law—ranging from constitutional law to administrative law to admiralty law—and consequently, a legal education has become a "de facto" prerequisite to appointment on the Supreme Court. Every person who has been nominated to the court has been an attorney.


text: Before the advent of modern law schools in the United States, justices, like most attorneys of the time, completed their legal studies by "reading law" (studying under and acting as an apprentice to more experienced attorneys) rather than attending a formal program. The first justice to be appointed who had attended an actual law school was Levi Woodbury, appointed to the court in 1846. Woodbury had attended Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut prior to his admission to the bar in 1812. However, Woodbury did not receive a law degree. Woodbury's successor on the court, Benjamin Robbins Curtis, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1832, and was appointed to the court in 1851, was the first Justice to bear such a credential.


text: Associate Justices James F. Byrnes, whose short tenure lasted from June 1941 to October 1942, and Robert H. Jackson, who served from July 1941 to October 1954, were the last two justices to be appointed without having graduated from law school; Stanley Forman Reed, who served on the court from 1938 to 1957, was the last sitting justice from such a background. In total, of the 115 justices appointed to the court, 49 have graduated from law school, an additional 18 attended some law school but did not graduate, and 47 received their legal education without any law school attendance. Two justices, Sherman Minton and Lewis F. Powell Jr., earned a Master of Laws degree.


text: In 1970, G. Harold Carswell, was nominated as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court – to occupy the seat vacated by Abe Fortas. During the debate of the nomination, Nebraska Republican Roman Hruska intoned in a TV interview, "Even if he [Carswell] were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? We can't have all Brandeises and Frankfurters and Cardozos."


text: The table below shows the college and law school from which each of the currently sitting justices graduated:


text: Not only have all justices been attorneys, nearly two thirds had previously been judges. , eight of the nine sitting justices previously served as judges of the United States courts of appeals, while Justice Elena Kagan served as Solicitor General, the attorney responsible for representing the federal government in cases before the court. Few justices have a background as criminal defense lawyers, and Thurgood Marshall is reportedly the last justice to have had a client in a death penalty case.


text: Historically, justices have come from some tradition of public service; only George Shiras Jr. had no such experience. Relatively few justices have been appointed from among members of Congress. Six were members of the United States Senate at the time of their appointment, while one was a sitting member of the House of Representatives. Six more had previously served in the Senate. Three have been sitting governors. Only one, William Howard Taft, had been President of the United States. The last justice to have held elected office was Sandra Day O'Connor, who was elected twice to the Arizona State Senate after being appointed there by the governor.


text: Predominantly, recent justices have had experience in the Executive branch. The last Member of Congress to be nominated was Sherman Minton. The last nominee to have any Legislative branch experience was Sandra Day O'Connor.


text: , 42 justices have been military veterans. Numerous justices were appointed who had served in the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War (including three who had served in the Confederate States Army), World War I and World War II. However, no justice has been appointed who has served in any subsequent war. The last justice to have served in the military during wartime was John Paul Stevens, who was in naval intelligence during World War II.


text: The financial position of the typical Supreme Court Justice has been described as "upper-middle to high social status: reared in nonrural but not necessarily urban environment, member of a civic-minded, politically active, economically comfortable family". Charles A. Beard, in his "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States", profiled those among the justices who were also drafters of the Constitution.


text: James Wilson, Beard notes, "developed a lucrative practice at Carlisle" before becoming "one of the directors of the Bank of North America on its incorporation in 1781". A member of the Georgia Land Company, Wilson "held shares to the amount of at least one million acres". John Blair was "one of the most respectable men in Virginia, both on account of his Family as well as fortune". Another source notes that Blair "was a member of a prominent Virginia family. His father served on the Virginia Council and was for a time acting Royal governor. His granduncle, James Blair, was founder and first president of the College of William and Mary." John Rutledge was elected Governor of South Carolina at a time when the Constitution of that state set, as a qualification for the office, ownership of "a settled plantation or freehold ... of the value of at least ten thousand pounds currency, clear of debt". Oliver Ellsworth "rose rapidly to wealth and power in the bar of his native state" with "earnings... unrivalled in his own day and unexampled in the history of the colony", developing "a fortune which for the times and the country was quite uncommonly large". Bushrod Washington was the nephew of George Washington, who was at the time of the younger Washington's appointment the immediate past President of the United States and one of the wealthiest men in the country.


text: "About three-fifths of those named to the Supreme Court personally knew the President who nominated them". There have been exceptions to the typical portrait of justices growing up middle class or wealthy. For example, the family of Sherman Minton went through a period of impoverishment during his childhood, resulting from the disability of his father due to a heat stroke.


text: In 2008, seven of the nine sitting justices were millionaires, and the remaining two were close to that level of wealth. Historian Howard Zinn, in his 1980 book "A People's History of the United States", argues that the justices cannot be neutral in matters between rich and poor, as they are almost always from the upper class. Chief Justice Roberts is the son of an executive with Bethlehem Steel; Justice Stevens was born into a wealthy Chicago family; and Justices Kennedy and Breyer both had fathers who were successful attorneys. Justices Alito and Scalia both had educated (and education-minded) parents: Scalia's father was a highly educated college professor and Alito's father was a high school teacher before becoming "a long-time employee of the New Jersey state legislature". Only Justices Thomas and Sotomayor have been regarded as coming from a lower-class background. One authority states that "Thomas grew up in poverty. The Pin Point community he lived in lacked a sewage system and paved roads. Its inhabitants dwelled in destitution and earned but a few cents each day performing manual labor". The depth of Thomas's poverty has been disputed by suggestions of "ample evidence to suggest that Thomas enjoyed, by and large, a middle-class upbringing".


text: Beginning in 1979, the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 required federal officials, including the justices, to file annual disclosures of their income and assets. These disclosures provide a snapshot into the wealth of the justices, reported within broad ranges, from year to year since 1979. In the first such set of disclosures, only two justices were revealed to be millionaires: Potter Stewart and Lewis F. Powell, with Chief Justice Warren Burger coming in third with about $600,000 in holdings. The least wealthy Justice was Thurgood Marshall.


text: The 1982 report disclosed that newly appointed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was a millionaire, and the second-wealthiest Justice on the court (after Powell). The remaining justices listed assets in the range of tens of thousands to a few hundred-thousand, with the exception of Thurgood Marshall, who "reported no assets or investment income of more than $100". The 1985 report had the justices in relatively the same positions, while the 1992 report had O'Connor as the wealthiest member of the court, with Stevens being the only other millionaire, most other justices reporting assets averaging around a half million dollars, and the two newest justices, Clarence Thomas and David Souter, reporting assets of at least $65,000. In 2011, however, it was revealed that Thomas had misstated his income going back to at least 1989.


text: The 2007 report was the first to reflect the holdings of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Disclosures for that year indicated that Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy were the only justices who were clearly not millionaires, although Thomas was reported to have signed a book deal worth over one million dollars. Other justices have reported holdings within the following ranges:


text: The financial disclosures indicate that many of the justices have substantial stock holdings. This, in turn, has affected the business of the court, as these holdings have led justices to recuse themselves from cases, occasionally with substantial impact. For example, in 2008, the recusal of John Roberts in one case, and Samuel Alito in another, resulted in each ending in a 4–4 split, which does not create a binding precedent. The court was unable to decide another case in 2008 because four of the nine justices had conflicts, three arising from stock ownership in affected companies.


title: Richa Sharma (actress)

text: Richa Sharma (6 August 1964 10 December 1996), also known by her married name Richa Sharma Dutt, was an Indian actress and model who worked in Bollywood. She married Sanjay Dutt in 1987 and died of a brain tumour in 1996.


title: Richa Sharma (actress)

text: She came to visit Dev Anand at a film shoot wanting to be his next heroine but was too young. Dev promised her he would cast her once she grew older. He eventually gave her a break with "Hum Naujawan" in 1985. She went on to act in "Anubhav" and "Insaaf Ki Awaaz" the following year and in "Sadak Chhap" and "Aag Hi Aag" in 1987.


title: Richa Sharma (actress)

text: Richa married actor Sanjay Dutt in New York City, United States in 1987. The couple had a daughter, Trishala Dutt. Within two years of marriage, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Richa died at her parents' home in New York on 10 December 1996.


title: John Reardon

text: John Henry Reardon (born July 30, 1975) is a Canadian actor and former university football player. Prior to 2015, Reardon starred as Blake Laviolette on the CBC Television series "Arctic Air" and had a recurring role as Greg Cameron on the Showcase series "Continuum". As of 2019, Reardon stars as Detective Charlie Hudson on the Canadian television series "Hudson & Rex".


title: John Reardon

text: Born July 30, 1975, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Reardon studied Theartre arts at the Lir Academy of Dramatic Arts in Dublin, Ireland as well as improv at The Second City in Los Angeles, California, and Toronto, Ontario. While at Mount Allison University, Reardon considered pursuing a career in medicine, but growing up, his dream was to become a professional athlete. He was a Canadian all-star college football player for Mount Allison from 1993 to 1997, graduating with a B.S. degree in Biology.


title: John Reardon

text: He started acting in 2001 and has appeared in several TV shows and movies, such as "Tru Calling" as Randall Thompson, "White Chicks" as Heath, "Scary Movie 4" as Jeremiah and "Merlin's Apprentice" as Jack. Starting in 2013, he has roles on both CBC's "Arctic Air" and Showcase's "Continuum".


title: John Reardon

text: On "Arctic Air", John Reardon portrayed Blake Laviolette, a young, good-looking ""Top Gun"-type" pilot who was secretly involved with his coworker and fellow pilot Krista Ivarson. According to Reardon, his character is "a fascinating duality because Blake is a bit of a cocky hotshot pilot who, I think, just found himself in the north and Yellowknife as a bit of a stepping stone to moving to what he probably considered his dream job. However, once he gets there, he starts to realize that there’s something about that part of the country that gets to people. In fact, it starts to get to him and he begins to fall in love with the north, followed by Krista [Pascale Hutton]. The priorities he had before all this end up changing and Blake becomes almost a prouder Yellowknifer than anyone else."


title: John Reardon

text: On "Continuum", Reardon plays Greg Cameron, the husband of the main character, Kiera Cameron. According to Reardon, "Greg on the surface appears to be a clean-cut family man who is a respectable law-abiding member of society. The memory of Greg, along with their son Sam, is an anchor for Kiera when she is transported back in time and taken away from her family. However, as season one progresses, it appears that Greg may not be what he seems."