Kennedy became the most senior Associate Justice on the court following the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Since the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, he has been the swing vote on many of the Court's 5–4 decisions. He has authored the majority ruling in many of these cases, including "Lawrence v. Texas", "Boumediene v. Bush", "Citizens United v. FEC", and "Obergefell v. Hodges".
On June 27, 2018, Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, effective July 31.
Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California, on July 23, 1936. He went to Harvard University, Stanford University, and the London School of Economics. He was a private lawyer, a professor, and in 1975, he was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1988, Ronald Reagan nominated him for the Supreme Court. He became a member of the court on February 18, 1988. He has two sons and a daughter.
David Souter
David Hackett Souter (; born September 17, 1939) is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served from October 1990 until his retirement in June 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat left by William J. Brennan, Jr., Souter sat on both the Rehnquist and Roberts courts and came to vote reliably with the court's liberal members.
He was the only Justice during his time on the Court with court experience outside of a federal appeals court. He served as a prosecutor (1966–1968), in the New Hampshire Attorney General's office (1968–1976), as the Attorney General of New Hampshire (1976–1978), as an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire (1978–1983), as an Associate Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court (1983–1990) and briefly as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990).
Following Souter's retirement announcement in May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as his replacement.
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Thomas has been a Justice since 1991. He is the only African-American currently on the court. He is also the second African American to ever serve on the court. The only other African American was Thurgood Marshall. During his confirmation process, Professor Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Regardless, Thomas was confirmed in October 1991.
Clarence Thomas was born in Pin Point, Georgia. His father left his family when he was only two years old. He did not meet his son Clarence again until Clarence was nine years old. This left his mother, Leola Anderson, to take care of the family.
Clarence and his brother were sent to live with his mother's parents in Savannah, Georgia. His grandfather wanted him to become a priest. Thomas was sent to St. John Vianney Minor Seminary, an all-white boarding school near Savannah. In 1968 he transferred to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He gave up all ideas of becoming a priest after the death of Martin Luther King Jr.. Thomas then obtained a law degree at Yale University.
After Yale he returned to Missouri and worked for State Attorney General, John Danforth. in 1977 Danforth was elected to the U.S. Senate. Thomas became a corporate lawyer for the Monsanto Company. Two years later he became Danforth's legislative aide in Washington, D.C.. President Ronald Reagan offered Thomas a job as the assistant secretary for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education. He then became the chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush. In 1991, Thurgood Marshall retired from the Supreme Court. Bush nominated Thomas to replace him.
He had a hard time getting approved so that he could become a Supreme Court justice. This was partly because one of his former employees, Anita Hill, claimed that he sexually harassed her. Thomas said that was not true. The Senate confirmed his nomination by a vote of 52-48. All Republicans, except Bob Packwood of Oregon and James Jeffords of Vermont, voted for confirmation.
Stephen Breyer
Stephen Gerald Breyer (; born August 15, 1938) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court.
Breyer is of Jewish descent. He has been an Associate Justice since 1994. Breyer generally favors a liberal interpretation of the law; he is pro-choice and pro-civil liberties. Breyer had the second-longest tenure as the most junior justice on the bench. Breyer is also the only justice to appear on a quiz show ("Wait Wait Don't Tell Me"). Before being a judge, he was a professor at Harvard Law School and a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Breyer is an Eagle Scout.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020) was an American jurist. She was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton. She was known as a feminist icon and was nicknamed "The Notorious R.B.G.".
Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She was the second female justice (after Sandra Day O'Connor) and the first Jewish female justice. Ginsburg was considered a member of the more liberal side of the Supreme Court.
Ginsburg wrote notable majority opinions, including "United States v. Virginia", "Olmstead v. L.C.", and "Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc."
She was known as "The Notorious R.B.G.", in reference to the rapper known as "The Notorious B.I.G.".
When John Paul Stevens retired in 2010, Ginsburg became the oldest justice on the court at age 77.
Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer in 1999 and for pancreatic cancer in 2009. On November 8, 2018, she was hospitalized after fracturing three ribs in a fall.
On August 24, 2019, it was revealed that Ginsburg underwent radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer over the summer. In July 2020, she announced that she had liver cancer.
On September 18, 2020, Ginsburg died from problems caused by metastatic pancreatic cancer in Washington, D.C. at the age of 87.
John Roberts
John Glover Roberts, Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is the seventeenth and current Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Roberts is generally considered a member of the more conservative wing of the court. However since the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, he has been seen as the moderate and tie-breaker in some major Supreme Court cases during the Presidency of Donald Trump.
Before joining the Supreme Court on September 29, 2005, Roberts was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for two years.
Roberts has been portrayed as a consistent advocate for conservative principles by analysts such as Jeffrey Toobin.
Roberts was first nominated by President George W. Bush to replace Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice, but Chief Justice William Rehnquist died before Roberts's confirmation so Bush nominated Roberts to replace Rehnquist instead. Roberts was confirmed by the full United States Senate on September 29 by a margin of 78–22.
Tacna Region
Tacna Region is the most southern region in Peru. The capital city is Tacna.
Tacna
Tacna is a city in Peru. It is the capital of Tacna Region.
Franz Kafka