Though there are now only nine seats on the U.S. Supreme Court, the tables below list eleven lines of succession. There is one for the chief justiceship and ten for the associate justiceships that Congress has created at one time and another as it has changed the size of the Court. In other words, two associate justiceships have “died out” in the course of the Court’s history. The present members of the Court, in addition to the chief justice, hold the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, and tenth associate justiceships created by Congress.
Reading across, there is a column for each president, a column for each chief justice, and columns for the ten associate justiceships. Justices who have held each seat are listed in chronological order, beginning with the justices nominated by the heroic George Washington and ending with the justices nominated by the lying, fear-mongering, chameleon-like Joe Whatshisname.
There are two horizontal divisions. The first, indicated by double red lines, delineates presidencies. The beginning of every justice’s term is associated with the president who nominated that person to a seat on the Court. The end of each justice’s term is associated with the president who was in office when the justice’s term ended by resignation or death.
The second horizontal division, indicated by alternating bands of gray and white, delineates chief justiceships. Thus the reader can see which justices served with a particular chief justice. The “Roberts Court”, for example, has thus far included Roberts and — in order of ascension to the Court — Stevens, O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Brown-Jackson.
Because there is a separate line of succession for the chief justiceship, persons who were already on the Court and then elevated to the chief justiceship are listed in two different places. Also, the names of a few other justices appear in more than one place because they served non-consecutive terms on the Court.
The table is divided into three parts for ease of reading. (Zoom in if the type is too small for you.) Part I covers the chief justiceship (currently Roberts) and associate justice positions 1-3 (currently Sotomayor, Brown-Jackson, and Kavanaugh). Part II covers associate justice positions 4-7 (currently Kagan, 4; Barrett, 6). Part III covers associate justice positions 8-10 (currently Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas).
Part I
Part II
Part III
Politics and Prosperity 