Currently, there are three retired Associate Justices: Sandra Day O ' Connor, who assumed senior status on January 31, 2006, David H. Souter, who assumed senior status on June 29, 2009, and John Paul Stevens, who assumed senior status on June 29, 2010.

Because Justice John Paul Stevens had recused himself, only eight Justices heard the case, and it ended in a 4 – 4 tie.

Sir John Popham was Lord Chief Justice, Sir Thomas Fleming was Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and two Justices, Sir Thomas Walmsley and Sir Peter Warburton, sat as Justices of the Common Pleas.

Locke's father, also called John, was a country lawyer and clerk to the Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna, who had served as a captain of cavalry for the Parliamentarian forces during the early part of the English Civil War.

Use of the previous title when referring to Chief Justices John Jay through Roger B. Taney is technically correct, as that was the legal title during their time on the Court, but the newer title is frequently used retroactively for all Chief Justices.

Most Chief Justices, including John Roberts, have been nominated to the highest position on the Court without any previous experience on the Supreme Court ; indeed some, such as Earl Warren, received confirmation despite having no prior judicial experience.

The Court has had three Chief Justices to date, Elizabeth Evatt AC, Alastair Nicholson and Diana Bryant QC ( Formerly Chief Federal Magistrate, appointed to current role in 2004 The Deputy Chief Justice is John Faulks ( appointed as a Judge in 1994 and to his current position in 2004 ).

The town's Justices of the Peace in 1831 were Parker Merrill, George W. Pillsbury, Benning Leavitt, John Palmer and A.

The presiding Justices for the Town are the Honorable John Kohler and the Honorable Walter Klyczek.

When Sir John Croke, suspected in engaging in a conspiracy, sent him some sugar loaves to excuse his absence from a case, Hale remarked that " I cannot think that Sir John believes that the King's Justices come into the country to take bribes.

Similarly, John Campbell in his Lives of the Chief Justices of England, wrote that Hale was " one of the most pure, the most pious, the most independent, and the most learned " of judges.

In a 4 to 1 decision, the Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, with Chief Justice John Jay and Associate Justices John Blair, James Wilson, and William Cushing constituting the majority ; only Justice Iredell dissented.

John Campbell, in his The Lives of the Chief Justices of England, said that " His reasoning ... is narrow minded ; had utter contempt for method and style in his compositions ", and says that Coke's Reports were " tinctured with quaintness and pedantry ".

Some 149 sitting United States federal judges are Harvard Law School graduates ; six of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States attended the law school ( Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and Elena Kagan ).

Six of the current nine members of the court attended HLS: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, who also served as the Dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009.

Justices John Marshall Harlan, Howell Edmunds Jackson, Edward Douglass White, and Henry Billings Brown dissented from the majority opinion.

William Rehnquist, Byron White, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas — the six Justices who did not join the plurality opinion — wrote or joined opinions in which they partially concurred and partially dissented from the decision.

Among them are Owen Roberts ( US Supreme Court Justice ), James Harry Covington ( Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia ), Daniel John Layton ( Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court ), Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix, Jr., Horace Stern and George Sharswood ( Chief Justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ), and Deborah Tobias Poritz ( Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court ).

* Frank, John P., The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions ( Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors ).

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, and Lewis Powell.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion which Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer joined.

In both cases, William J. Brennan wrote the majority opinion, joined by Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy ( Kennedy also authored a separate concurrence in Johnson ), and the dissenters in both cases were then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist ( who authored a dissent in Johnson ), and Justices John Paul Stevens ( who authored dissents in both cases ), Byron White and Sandra Day O ' Connor.

Friends and former colleagues, including former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld ; U. S. Supreme Court Associate Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia ; former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach ; and former U. S. Court of Appeals Judge and Solicitor General Robert H. Bork, gathered to honor Mr. Levi.

The Court split 5-4, with Justice Stephen Breyer filing a dissenting opinion in which he was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

" Justices William J. Brennan and Harry Blackmun delivered concurring opinions, while Thurgood Marshall and John Paul Stevens dissented.

Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, and Sandra Day O ' Connor all agreed that the law was unconstitutional, but Ginsburg wrote a separate opinion, as did O ' Connor.

Speakers at ACS events have included U. S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, Vice President Joe Biden, former Vice President Al Gore, U. S. Senators Russ Feingold, Amy Klobuchar, Patrick Leahy, Charles Schumer the late Paul Wellstone, and Sheldon Whitehouse, U. S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Artur Davis, Barney Frank, Diana DeGette, Jesse Jackson, Jr., and John Lewis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Janet Reno and Attorney General Eric Holder, former Solicitors General Paul D. Clement, Walter E. Dellinger, Drew S. Days and Seth P. Waxman, and White House Counsel Greg Craig.

The case was heard by only seven members of the court with Associate Justice Sandra Day O ' Connor presiding, as Chief Justice William Rehnquist was recuperating from medical treatment at home and Associate Justice John Paul Stevens was delayed on his return to Washington from Florida ; both absent Justices read the briefs and oral argument transcripts and participated in the case decision.

Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Breyer dissented.

However, four justices ( Breyer, Souter, Ginsburg, and Stevens ) specifically disputed this in their dissenting opinions, and the remaining two Justices ( Kennedy and O ' Connor ) declined to join Rehnquist's concurrence on the matter.

Four justices ( Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter and Breyer ) dissented as to stopping the recount.

Justice Stevens ' dissent ( joined by Justices Breyer and Ginsburg ) concluded as follows: The per curiam opinion in Bush v. Gore did not technically dismiss the case, and instead " remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

Justice Stevens wrote a dissent in which Justices Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer joined.

Justices Burger, Stewart, Rehnquist, and Stevens supported a strict interpretation and, thus, ruled in favor of Bakke.

At this point, only two of the Justices were obvious supporters of Roe v. Wade: Blackmun, the author of Roe, and Stevens, who had joined opinions specifically reaffirming Roe in City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health and Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

At the conference of the Justices two days after oral argument, Justice Souter defied expectations, joining Justices O ' Connor, Stevens, and Blackmun, who had likewise refused to do so three years earlier in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services.

All these opening sections were joined by Justices Blackmun and Stevens for the majority.

In the majority were Justices O ' Connor, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer.

Four Justices ( Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer ) each wrote their own opinion with various combinations of the other three joining.

Nonetheless, Associate Justices Stevens and Kennedy expressed their dislike of the system.

" Justice Blackmun, joined by Justices Brennan, Marshall, and Stevens, dissented, citing that " his case is no more about a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy ," as the Court purports to declare, ante at 191, that Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U. S. 557 ( 1969 ), was about a fundamental right to watch obscene movies, or Katz v. United States, 389 U. S. 347 ( 1967 ), was about a fundamental right to place interstate bets from a telephone booth.

Justice Stevens, with whom Justices Brennan and Marshall joined in dissent, dissented further from the majority opinion: " the Court orders the dismissal of respondent's complaint even though the State's statute prohibits all sodomy ; even though that prohibition is concededly unconstitutional with respect to heterosexuals ; and even though the State's post hoc explanations for selective application are belied by the State's own actions.

The court's 5-4 decision was written by Justice Kennedy and joined by Justices Ginsburg, Stevens, Breyer, and Souter, and cited international law, child developmental science, and many other factors in reaching its conclusion.

Justice Souter, however, joined by Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, and Breyer, argued that enacting VAWA was well within congressional power under the Commerce Clause, and stated that the majority was reviving an old and discredited interpretation of the Commerce Clause.

Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg, argued that it was primarily the responsibility of Congress, and not the courts, to put limits on Congress's power under the Commerce Clause.