Associate Justices, like the Chief Justice, are nominated by the President of the United States and are confirmed by the United States Senate by majority vote.

Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O ' Connor wrote the majority opinion ; they were joined by David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer, and opposed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia.

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.

( In that time, there was no " opinion of the Court " or " majority opinion "; the Justices delivered their opinions seriatim, that is, individually, and in ascending order of seniority.

In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the Miranda warnings were not constitutionally required, citing a panoply of cases that demonstrated a majority of the then-current court, counting himself, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and Justices Kennedy, O ' Connor, and Thomas, " on record as believing that a violation of Miranda is not a violation of the Constitution.

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

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

The remainder of the decision did not command a majority, but at least two other Justices concurred in judgment on each of the remaining points.

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

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

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

He noted that the same rationale used to overturn Bowers could have been used to overturn Roe v. Wade, which the Justices in the majority in Lawrence had recently upheld in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Roosevelt claimed that this was intended to lessen the load on the older Justices, rather than being an attempt to achieve a majority that would cease to strike his New Deal acts.

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.

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.

Because the opinions of Justices Stewart and White were the narrowest, finding only that the death penalty as applied under the statutes in existence at the time was cruel and unusual, theirs are often considered the controlling majority opinions.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority which included Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and Chief Justice John Roberts.

He was willing to compromise to win a majority of Justices.

Ironically, and despite that era's Republican commitment to Reconstruction and black civil rights, all five Justices in the majority were appointed by Republicans ( three by Lincoln, two by Grant ), while the lone Democratic appointee Nathan Clifford dissented.

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.

These lawsuits ultimately came to the Florida Supreme Court in the fall of 1999, when a bare majority ( 4 of the 7 Justices ) found that the electric chair was constitutional in a case brought by death row inmate Thomas Provenzano.

Justice David Souter wrote the majority opinion, which seven Justices joined.

Justices Breyer, Stevens, O ' Connor, Souter, and Ginsburg established the majority for two parts of the Court's opinion:

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the opinion and was joined by Justices Scalia, Alito, and Thomas and by Chief Justice Roberts.

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.

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.

However, the plurality decision jointly written by Justices Souter, O ' Connor, and Kennedy is recognized as the lead opinion with precedential weight because each of its parts were concurred in by at least two other Justices, albeit different ones for each part.

Chief Justice Rehnquist, joined by Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas, dissented, arguing that the University's " plus " system was, in fact, a thinly veiled and unconstitutional quota system.

Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas dissented.

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

The outer limits of that doctrine were delineated by Gonzales v. Raich, in which Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy departed from their previous positions as parts of the Lopez and Morrison majorities to uphold a federal law regarding marijuana.

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.

Justices Marshall, Blackmun, Scalia, and Kennedy joined Brennan, with Kennedy also writing a concurrence.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist's opinion was joined in its entirety only by Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy.

On the Supreme Court of the United States, Associate Justices Potter Stewart and Anthony Kennedy have been described as swing votes between the two factions of the court.

Justice O ' Connor wrote a plurality opinion representing the Court's judgment, which was joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Breyer and Kennedy.

Justice White filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which Justices Rehnquist and Kennedy joined.

Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Breyer dissented.

Justices Breyer and Souter wanted to remand the case to the Florida Supreme Court to permit that court to establish uniform standards of what constituted a legal vote and then manually recount all ballots using those standards.

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

Two of those four dissenters ( Justices Breyer and Souter ) acknowledged that the counting up until December 9 had not conformed with Equal Protection requirements.

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 Ginsburg and Breyer concurred in judgment, but stated that they did not subscribe to the Court's belief that the affirmative measures in question would be unnecessary in 25 years.

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

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.

* Justice Stevens, joined by Justices Ginsburg, and Breyer, dissented on one section of the part of the Court's opinion written by the Chief Justice.

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.

It was not this decision that proved especially controversial among commentators, and indeed, the proposition gained seven out of nine votes ; Justices Souter and Breyer joined the majority of five — but only, it should be emphasized, for the finding that there was an Equal Protection violation.

He has also welcomed two United States Supreme Court Justices -- Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito -- to the Law School for exclusive speaking engagements.