How Justices Reach the Supreme Court
The stepping stones: what all 116 justices were doing the day the call came — and how the door they walked through has narrowed.
Careers before the Court for all 116 justices, from the Epstein Justices Database and checked against the Federal Judicial Center. Complete through the newest arrival, Ketanji Brown Jackson (2022); a future confirmation joins the page on the next build.
There is no required résumé — the Constitution does not even ask for a law degree — and for most of the Court’s history the justices came from everywhere: governors’ mansions, Senate seats, cabinet rooms, law-school deanships, private practice. But the door has narrowed. Of the 16 justices seated since 1975, 14 arrived directly from a U.S. court of appeals; the only exceptions are Sandra Day O'Connor, Elena Kagan. The last justice who had never been a judge anywhere before joining the Court is Elena Kagan, in 2010 — and before her you have to go back to Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist in 1971.
What they were doing when the call came
One category per justice: the position held at the moment of first nomination — earlier stops on the road are not counted here, so the six groups sum to 116. For the twelve recess appointees the moment used is the recess appointment, which is when the call actually came: Earl Warren counts as Governor of California, not as a sitting justice.
On a bench — 55
John Rutledge · William Cushing · John Blair Jr. · Thomas Johnson · Samuel Chase · Alfred Moore · William Johnson · Henry Brockholst Livingston · Thomas Todd · Robert Trimble · Philip P. Barbour · Peter V. Daniel · Samuel Nelson · Robert C. Grier · David Davis · Stephen J. Field · Ward Hunt · William B. Woods · Horace Gray · Samuel Blatchford · David J. Brewer · Henry B. Brown · Howell E. Jackson · Rufus W. Peckham · Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. · William R. Day · Horace H. Lurton · Willis Van Devanter · Mahlon Pitney · John H. Clarke · Edward T. Sanford · Benjamin N. Cardozo · Wiley B. Rutledge · Sherman Minton · John Marshall Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr. · Charles E. Whittaker · Potter Stewart · Warren E. Burger · Harry A. Blackmun · John Paul Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor · Antonin Scalia · Anthony M. Kennedy · David H. Souter · Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen G. Breyer · John G. Roberts Jr. · Samuel A. Alito Jr. · Sonia Sotomayor · Neil M. Gorsuch · Brett M. Kavanaugh · Amy Coney Barrett · Ketanji Brown Jackson
In private practice — 24
James Wilson (Pennsylvania) · James Iredell (North Carolina) · Bushrod Washington (Virginia) · Henry Baldwin (Pennsylvania) · Roger B. Taney (Maryland) · John Catron (Tennessee) · John A. Campbell (Alabama) · Nathan Clifford (Maine) · Noah H. Swayne (Ohio) · Samuel F. Miller (Iowa) · William Strong (Pennsylvania) · Joseph P. Bradley (New Jersey) · Morrison R. Waite (Ohio) · John Marshall Harlan (Kentucky) · Stanley Matthews (Ohio) · Melville W. Fuller (Illinois) · George Shiras Jr. (Pennsylvania) · Joseph R. Lamar (Georgia) · Louis D. Brandeis (Massachusetts) · George Sutherland (District Of Columbia) · Pierce Butler (Minnesota) · Owen J. Roberts (Pennsylvania) · Abe Fortas (District Of Columbia) · Lewis F. Powell Jr. (Virginia)
In a federal legal post — 12
Joseph McKenna (U.S. attorney general) · William H. Moody (U.S. attorney general) · James C. McReynolds (U.S. attorney general) · Harlan Fiske Stone (U.S. attorney general) · Stanley F. Reed (U.S. solicitor general) · Frank Murphy (U.S. attorney general) · Robert H. Jackson (U.S. attorney general) · Tom C. Clark (U.S. attorney general) · Byron R. White (U.S. assistant attorney general) · Thurgood Marshall (U.S. solicitor general) · William H. Rehnquist (U.S. assistant attorney general) · Elena Kagan (U.S. solicitor general)
In an executive office — 13
John Jay (Secretary of foreign affairs) · William Paterson (Governor, New Jersey) · John Marshall (Secretary of state) · Gabriel Duvall (Controller of the treasury) · Smith Thompson (Secretary of the navy) · John McLean (Postmaster general) · Salmon P. Chase (Secretary of the treasury) · Lucius Q.C. Lamar (Secretary of the interior) · Charles Evans Hughes (Governor, New York) · William O. Douglas (Securities and exchange commission) · Fred M. Vinson (Secretary of the treasury) · Earl Warren (Governor, California) · Arthur J. Goldberg (Secretary of labor)
In a legislature — 10
Oliver Ellsworth (Member of the U.S. senate, Connecticut) · Joseph Story (Member of the state house (lower house), Massachusetts) · James M. Wayne (Member of the U.S. house of representatives, Georgia) · John McKinley (Member of the U.S. senate, Alabama) · Levi Woodbury (Member of the U.S. senate, New Hampshire) · Benjamin R. Curtis (Member of the state house (lower house), Massachusetts) · Edward D. White (Member of the U.S. senate, Louisiana) · Hugo L. Black (Member of the U.S. senate, Alabama) · James F. Byrnes (Member of the U.S. senate, South Carolina) · Harold H. Burton (Member of the U.S. senate, Ohio)
Teaching law — 2
William Howard Taft (Professor, Yale University) · Felix Frankfurter (Professor, Harvard University)
The narrowing door
Share of arriving justices who were sitting judges when nominated, by period.
Across the Court’s first century and a half, 39% of arriving justices were sitting judges. Since 2001 it is 88% — 7 of 8, every one of them federal.
| Arrived | Justices | Sitting judges | Of them, federal judges |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1789–1850 | 31 | 14 (45%) | 3 |
| 1851–1900 | 26 | 10 (38%) | 5 |
| 1901–1950 | 30 | 10 (33%) | 7 |
| 1951–2000 | 21 | 14 (67%) | 12 |
| 2001–today | 8 | 7 (88%) | 7 |
In all, 76 of the 116 held some judgeship before the Court and 40 never did. The ladder itself has changed rungs: the early Court drew on state benches, the modern Court on the federal courts of appeals — a court that did not exist until 1891. Age barely moved while the résumé standardised: the youngest arrivals, William Johnson and Joseph Story, were 32; the oldest, Horace H. Lurton, was 65; and the median sits at 53.
The clerkship pipeline
10 justices began their careers clerking at the Court itself — 6 of the 9 now sitting. The pipeline is new: every one of the 10 was appointed after 1960.
Three of the 10 clerked for a justice who had himself been a clerk, so the Court now holds three three-generation lines: Robert H. Jackson to William H. Rehnquist to John G. Roberts Jr., Fred M. Vinson to Byron R. White to Neil M. Gorsuch, and Arthur J. Goldberg to Stephen G. Breyer to Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The 40 justices with no prior judicial experience
The ones who never wore a robe before the Supreme Court’s — no judgeship of any kind, state or federal, trial or appellate. In order of arrival, with what they did instead.
The roll ends with Elena Kagan in 2010. Whether it ever grows again is one of the quiet questions of every vacancy since.
Questions
Do Supreme Court justices have to be judges first?
No. The Constitution sets no requirement of prior judicial service, legal training, or even a law degree. 40 of the 116 justices had never been a judge of any kind before joining the Court. In practice, though, the modern path runs through the bench: every justice confirmed after Kagan in 2010 has arrived from a U.S. court of appeals.
How many Supreme Court justices had no prior judicial experience?
40 of 116 — including John Marshall, Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Earl Warren, and William Rehnquist. The most recent is Elena Kagan, nominated in 2010 while serving as U.S. Solicitor General.
What jobs did justices have before joining the Court?
At the moment of nomination: 55 were sitting judges, 24 were in private practice, 12 held federal legal posts such as Attorney General or Solicitor General, 13 held executive office (governors, cabinet secretaries, agency heads), 10 sat in a legislature, and 2 were law professors.
How many current justices were federal appeals court judges?
8 of the 9 sitting justices served on a U.S. court of appeals before the Supreme Court — every current member except Elena Kagan, who came from the Solicitor General's office.
How many justices clerked at the Supreme Court?
10, all appointed since 1960 — and 6 of the 9 now sitting. Byron White was the first, in 1962; he had clerked for Chief Justice Fred Vinson in the Court's first clerkship generation.
Positions and years from the U.S. Supreme Court Justices Database (Epstein, Walker, Staudt, Hendrickson & Roberts, 2022), the standard scholarly dataset on the nominees, which draws on the Federal Judicial Center’s biographical directory. Builds on Justices by Law School.