Lists
The mortal court, sorted — data-driven answers built from all 116 justices.
The Annotated Bibliography
What should I read on the Supreme Court and its justices?
Every work cited anywhere on this site in one alphabet — 882 books, articles, memoirs and manuscript collections, 840 of them with a line on what the work is for. Downloadable four ways: grouped or by author, with the notes or without.
Where to Read the Supreme Court
What are the best online resources for Supreme Court research?
Twenty-seven online sources — every opinion since 1791, every argument recording since 1955, the four datasets behind serious quantitative work, and the justices’ papers — each with an honest label on what it holds and what it costs. Including the paywalls, and the library card that opens several of them.
Who Will Be the Next Justice?
Who will be the next Supreme Court justice?
The site’s one page of licensed speculation, honestly labeled: a ranked field of the federal appeals judges most likely to be the next nominee — ages, clerkships, shortlist history, every fact verified and every guess marked as one. Dated, and built to be revised.
The Circuit Bench, Left to Right
Who are the most conservative and most liberal federal appeals judges?
All 470 federal appeals judges evaluated between 1990 and 2024, ranked by what the lawyers who argued before them said — confidence intervals drawn, rival measures alongside. John Roberts ranks 9th of 451, Samuel Alito 13th, and the judges who desegregated the South break the models entirely.
How Old Is the Court?
What is the average age of the Supreme Court?
The average age of the sitting justices every year since 1789 — 45.8 on Washington's first bench, 71.2 in 1936 on the eve of the court-packing fight, and 66.1 today. A ratchet: it climbs a year at a time and only ever falls when somebody leaves.
Every Key Decision
What are the most important Supreme Court decisions?
The 331 cases the justices are remembered for, turned around to face the decisions instead — 265 cases, from the state-court precursors of the 1780s to the present, Court by Court, with what each held and who dissented. Dred Scott appears on nine profiles. Every case links to a free full text.
The Ideology of the Current Court
How conservative is the Supreme Court?
The 6–3 bench measured justice by justice over its own five terms — the blocs the votes reveal, who actually breaks ranks and how, and a deep ideology profile of each member, every break case named and verified.
The Court from Left to Right
Who are the most liberal and most conservative justices?
Every justice since 1946 ranked by liberal-vote share — and ranked again against the colleagues who decided the same cases, which moves the second Justice Harlan ten places and Anthony Kennedy nine the other way.
Every Court, Left to Right
How did each Supreme Court divide ideologically?
Fourteen benches from Marshall to Roberts, each justice measured against the colleagues who decided the same cases — and the seven Courts, spanning 128 years, where no order can be read at all.
Who Voted With Whom
Which Supreme Court justices vote together most often?
Pairwise agreement in every divided case since 1946, in five matrices — Brennan and Marshall at 93 percent, Rehnquist and Douglas at 13, and the blocs of each Chief Justice’s Court laid out corner to corner.
Who Changed on the Court
Which Supreme Court justices changed their minds?
Every justice since 1946, measured against the colleagues who decided the same cases — Harry Blackmun’s 32.4-point journey, Hugo Black’s turn to the right, and the famous “drifters” who never moved at all while the Court moved around them.
Who Has Sat on the Supreme Court?
What are the demographics of the Supreme Court?
All 116 justices by gender, race, religion, ancestry and family background — 110 men, 40 Episcopalians, 48 of English descent — and the century in which almost all of it changed. Roman Catholics have held a majority of the seats every year since 2007.
Justices Born Poor
How many Supreme Court justices were born poor?
Rags to robes: 26 justices born to modest means — a weaver’s son, a jailer’s son, a railroad porter’s son — with their fathers’ occupations, from the Epstein Justices Database.
Every Failed Supreme Court Nomination
How many Supreme Court nominations have failed?
The Senate’s graveyard: 45 nominations that ended in rejection, silence, withdrawal — or a confirmation nobody used. Tyler’s eight, Bork’s 58 no-votes, and the six who made it anyway.
Justices Who Died in Office
How many Supreme Court justices have died in office?
The complete chronological list — 51 justices, 9 of them Chief Justices, from James Wilson in 1798 to Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020 — and the strange folklore of the mortal court.
Stepping Stones to the Court
How do you become a Supreme Court justice?
What all 116 justices were doing when the call came — 55 sitting judges, and 40 who had never judged a case, a roll that ends with Elena Kagan in 2010. The clerkship pipeline, the narrowing door, and the 76 who climbed a bench to get there.
Supreme Court Justices by Law School
Which law school has produced the most Supreme Court justices?
Every justice’s legal education, ranked and grouped — from Harvard’s dynasty to the 45 justices who never attended law school at all, and the decade when every seat on the Court held an Ivy League degree.
The Best Biography of Every Justice
What is the best biography of each Supreme Court justice?
The ten best single-subject biographies ranked and argued — and then the complete index: the book to start with for every one of the 116 justices, and the 27 for whom nobody has written one.
The Free Library
Which Supreme Court books can I read online for free?
Every work on the reading shelves you can open tonight without spending a dollar — 443 books and articles, from the Internet Archive to the law-school repositories, covering every era of the Court. Every link verified.
Justices With No Biography
Which Supreme Court justices have no biography?
The forgotten shelf: 27 justices no one has written a book about — including a Chief Justice (Warren Burger), the author of Lochner, and the man once called “the most insignificant Justice” ever to serve.
The list shelf keeps growing — colleges, home states, ages at appointment, and tenure records are next.