Nine Justices of the US Supreme Court, by Anonymous

            We briefly talked about the Justices of the US Supreme Court, and I think its crazy how important they are to our government system so I wanted to go further into learning about each one in office today.  I want to know about their history, and what their back round is that got them to where they are today.  The basic knowledge behind the justices is that the present nominated them, and they have to be approved by the Senate.  Once they are approved they have a lifetime appointment, unless they decide to step down, or in very rare cases get booted.  However, looking at the big picture there is so much more about each one individually.

            The Chief Justice of the United States is John G. Roberts.  He was born in New York, and has a wife, and a family of two children.  He got his A.B. from Harvard College and also is law degree from Harvard Law School.  He has a long history in the government system serving from a law clerk, to a special assistant attorney general, as well as an associate counsel member to President Reagan.  He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in 2003, and was nominated by President G W  Bush as Chief Justice in 2005.

All of the Justices, except Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagen, and David Souter are married and have children.  Antonin Scalia has the most children at the number of nine.  The majority of the justices went to high-end schools for their undergrad, and almost all received their law degree the most top competitive schools in the country.  They all worked their way up in the system of the government holding some of the best positions in the government system.  This chart shows the basic information about each current Justice.

The duties of the Supreme Court Justices that are stated in the constitution are to check, and keep in check, the action of the President and Congress.  They also have the power to overturn any case that violates the constitution, and has the final say in all cases involved laws of Congress.  The justices do have a lot of power, however, the other two branches of government limit it.  The Court has nearly 5,000 requests of cases to be reviewed for hearing each year, but only generally gets to about 150 of them.  Each justice plays a key role in keeping out government in line.  The roles of these nine justices are a big part of our government system, and without them our balance between state and government could be corrupt. 

Works Cited:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/role-supreme-court

http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx