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Sunday, February 26, 2006

Supreme Court Trivia

  • Sandra Day O'Connor is the only living retired Supreme Court Justice
  • Only Congress gets to set the number of sitting justices
  • The number of Supreme Court Justices has bounced all over the place, from six, to seven, to ten, to nine
  • The most justices appointed by any one president was 11, by George Washington
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt came in a close second with eight appointments (it must be noted that he was president for a real long time, but can I get a yeow for stacking the court!)
  • Only two women have ever served on the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O'Connor (now retired), and Ruth Bader Ginsberg (still sitting)
  • Out of all the presidents we've had, only four never got to make any appointments to the court:
  1. William Henry Harrison (but, he only held office for one month)
  2. Zachary Taylor
  3. Andrew Johnson (he was not well liked, especially by congress, who foiled him by attritting the number of justices)
  4. Jimmy Carter
  • Nine justices have appeared on U.S. postage stamps
  1. John Jay (Chief Justice) - born 1745, served from 1789 to 1795, 15 cent stamp in 1958
  2. John Marshall (Chief Justice) - born 1755, served from 1801 - 1835, $5.00 stamp in 1894 and 1917, and 40 cent stamp in 1955
  3. Oliver Wendell Holmes - born in 1841, served from 1893 - 1925, 15 cent stamp in 1968
  4. William Howard Taft (Chief Justice) - born 1857, served from 1921 to 1930, 50 cent stamp 1938 (he served as both Chief Justice and President, and I believe he was put on the stamp for his service as President)
  5. Charles Evans Hughes (Chief Justice) - born 1862, served from 1910 to 1916, 4 cent stamp in 1962
  6. Harlan Fiske Stone (Chief Justice) - born 1872, served from 1925 to 1946 (chief from 1941 to 1946), 3 cent stamp in 1948
  7. Hugo Black - born in 1886, served from 1937 - 1971, 5 cent stamp in 1986
  8. Earl Warren (Chief Justice) - born 1891, served from 1953 to 1974 (senior status 1969 to 1974), 29 cent stamp in 1992
  9. Thurgood Marshall - born 1908, served from 1967 to 1991, 37 cent stamp in 2003

Posted by Marie at February 26, 2006 1:22 AM

Comments

I just want to say regarding the late Justice Holmes that his actual dates of service on the court were 1902-1932. He's a hero of mine, partly because my knowledge of him is so superficial; I'm reading up on him now, though.

Posted by: Dan at February 27, 2006 11:23 PM

You're absolutely right. I don't know what I was looking at.

Posted by: Marie at February 27, 2006 11:46 PM