Supreme Court of the United States

From Citizendium
Revision as of 19:17, 4 April 2008 by imported>Hayford Peirce (added that the magic number of nine is not specified by the Const. and that the number has varied)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
Catalogs [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

The Supreme Court of the United States is the final federal court of appeals in the United States, consisting of nine Justices - the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. Justices are nominated by the President, and are confirmed by the Senate. Article Three of the Constitution defines the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, which include federal cases, cases between States and as an appeal court for citizens to bring cases, although the Eleventh Amendment limits the jurisdiction of federal courts. There is no Constitutional specification of how many justices make up the Court, and the number has fluctuated over the years.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is John G. Roberts, a 53-year-old Bush appointee in September 2005, a Harvard-trained lawyer, former Associate Counsel to the President and practicing Roman Catholic. The current associate Justices are as follows:

Notes