The Nine Justices: 2021-2022 Term Quiz

Answer: John Roberts

John G. Roberts Jr. began his legal career shortly after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1979. Roberts clerked for distinguished judges like Henry Friendly and William Rehnquist and then worked in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Following some time in private practice, where he argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court, he advised Republican Governor Jeb Bush in handling disputes over the 2000 presidential election.

Roberts was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2003. Bush then nominated him for Associate Justice in 2005, but withdrew the nomination after Chief Justice Rehnquist died and nominated Roberts for the Chief Justice position. Roberts famously said in his confirmation hearings that judges call "balls and strikes". He has been described as someone concerned with the legitimacy of the Court, though some believe that the 2021-2022 term undermined the Court's legitimacy.

Answer: Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas was born in Georgia in 1948. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1974, Thomas served as assistant attorney general in Missouri, as a corporate attorney for Monsanto, and then as Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He briefly held the title of Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit between 1990 and 1991. Then, he was nominated by President Bush Sr. to the U.S. Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Thurgood Marshall. Thomas's confirmation hearings were among the most contentious in history, especially after claims that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill in the past.

Thomas was eventually confirmed by a 52-48 vote in the Senate. He was instrumental in moving the Court to the right, as he is an originalist and textualist who believes that the Constitution should be read literally, and not as a living, breathing document. Thomas's opinion in the 2022 case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen struck down a New York law that restricted rights to carry weapons outside of the home. Thomas wrote that no other Constitutional right is subject to what the law required, and it was therefore unconstitutional.

Answer: Stephen Breyer

Stephen Breyer was born in San Francisco, California in 1938. Breyer obtained a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and an LLB (Bachelor of Laws) from Harvard University (a degree that is today considered equivalent to the Juris Doctor). Breyer served as a corporal in the U.S. Army between 1957 and 1965. He clerked for Justice Arthur Goldberg, was a professor at Harvard Law School, and served as a judge (and then chief judge) for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Breyer was nominated by President Clinton in 1994, a year after Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the High Court.

Breyer's style has been described as practical and pragmatic. His writing is usually simple to understand, though he was also known for his long hypotheticals presented to lawyers who were arguing before the Court. Breyer was part of the Court's liberal wing.

Answer: Samuel Alito

Samuel Alito Jr. was born in New Jersey in 1950 to parents of Italian descent. Alito attended Princeton University and Yale Law School and then clerked for Judge Leonard I. Garth. Much of Alito's career after that clerkship was spent working in government as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, in the White House Office of Legal Counsel, and as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey between 1987 and 1990. President George H.W. Bush appointed Alito as a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, a position he held between 1990 and 2006. Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush in 2005 to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. O'Connor's spot was originally supposed to be taken by John Roberts, but after Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, Bush nominated Roberts as Chief Justice and Alito as associate justice.

Alito is one of the Court's most conservative members. In May 2022, the media outlet POLITICO published a story claiming that an opinion by Justice Alito in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization had leaked. The opinion would explicitly overturn the precedents in abortion cases set by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Alito cited centuries-old legal scholars in an opinion that was perceived by some as the most extreme course the Court could have taken. On June 24, 2022, a nearly identical opinion to the draft was officially released by the Court, effectively banning abortions in many U.S. states.

Answer: Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor was born in New York City in 1954. Sotomayor's parents were both Puerto Ricans who emigrated to New York before she was born. She attended Princeton University and then got her law degree from Yale University. Before embarking on a career as a judge, Sotomayor worked as an assistant district attorney in New York and in the private firm Pavia & Harcourt. Then, she was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to serve in one of the nation's most prestigious courts, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 1998, she was promoted by President Clinton to serve as Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a position she held until President Barack Obama chose her to succeed retiring Justice David Souter in the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor was confirmed in 2009 after a controversy involving remarks where she had referred to herself as a "wise Latina". She became the first woman of color, and the first Hispanic/Latina to serve on the Court, as well as the third woman ever to be a Supreme Court justice (the other two were Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg).

Johnson v. Arteaga-Martinez was a case about the rights of immigrants who have been detained by the U.S. government, specifically whether they should be entitled to bond hearings. Writing for the Court, Sotomayor held (somewhat surprisingly) that the Immigration and Nationality Act's text does not require the government to provide immigrants with bond hearings.

Answer: Solicitor General of the United States

Elena Kagan was born in New York City in 1960. Kagan was raised by Jewish parents and is a known lover of art and literature. She attended Princeton University, the University of Oxford, and then obtained her law degree from Harvard Law School. Kagan worked as a law clerk for Judge Abner J. Mikva, then as an attorney in the firm Williams & Connolly, and as a professor at the University of Chicago. Kagan was named Dean of Harvard Law School in 2003 and almost became the university's president in 2007.

She left academia in 2009 after President Barack Obama asked her to serve as his Solicitor General, despite her lack of experience in oral arguments. A year later, President Obama nominated Kagan to succeed Justice John Paul Stevens in the Supreme Court. Kagan is known in legal circles for her intelligence and clear style of writing. Many of her opinions and dissents are understandable by the average reader yet poignant.

Answer: Neil Gorsuch

Neil Gorsuch was born in Denver, Colorado in 1967. He is considered to be one of the Court's most conservative members because he believes in the legal philosophies of originalism and textualism. Gorsuch attended Columbia University and then received a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. Gorsuch clerked for two Supreme Court justices early in his career: Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. He also worked in private practice and for the Department of Justice before being appointed by President George W. Bush as Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, a position he held from 2006 to 2017.

Neil Gorsuch was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017 to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump had pledged to nominate conservative judges who would rule against abortion rights during his campaign, and many thought Gorsuch would do just that if a case about that issue came before him. Gorsuch's seat is sometimes referred to as a "stolen seat" because President Barack Obama had already nominated Merrick Garland to take over Scalia's seat. Congressional Republicans refused to give Garland a hearing claiming that it was an election year. Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate in 2017, and Garland began serving as Attorney General of the United States in 2021 under President Joe Biden.

Answer: Brett Kavanaugh

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement in 2018, opening a new vacancy for President Donald Trump to fill. Trump had received several suggestions from his close advisors and groups like the Federalist Society, but he ultimately decided to nominate Brett Kavanaugh to the High Court. Kavanaugh graduated from Yale University and then attended Yale Law School. His legal career in the 1990s mostly involved working in Republican administrations, mostly alongside Solicitor General Ken Starr. Starr was the lead prosecutor in the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and Kavanaugh was a major contributor to the Starr Report deriving from the investigation.

After serving as White House Staff Secretary and as a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh was nominated by Trump in 2018. His confirmation hearings are perhaps best remembered for the (unproven) sexual assault allegations brought forth by Professor Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh's combative responses to Democratic senators. He was confirmed by a narrow vote of 50-48. He has since mostly sided with the conservative wing of the Court, though he occasionally is also seen as a key swing vote.

Answer: Amy Coney Barrett

Amy Coney Barrett was born in Louisiana in 1972 and was raised by a Catholic family in New Orleans. Barrett obtained her undergraduate degree from Rhodes College and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Notre Dame's Law School. After graduation, Barrett clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia and then worked in private practice in a firm that represented President George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election controversy. Barrett then embarked on a career in academia, working as a law professor at the University of Notre Dame for almost two decades. Barrett briefly served as a Court of Appeals judge in the Seventh Circuit, and was then nominated by President Trump in 2020 to serve in the Supreme Court.

Many thought that since Ginsburg died in an election year, Republicans would not hold hearings for a Supreme Court justice because they refused to do so when President Obama nominated Merrick Garland. However, Congressional Republicans led by Mitch McConnell moved to fill the vacancy left by Ginsburg months before Trump's term ended. Barrett's confirmation further moved the Court to the right, and her vote played an important role in 2021-2022 cases like Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the case that overturned precedent on abortion.

Answer: Ketanji Brown Jackson

When he was on the campaign trail, President Joe Biden promised that he would appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court if a vacancy opened up. When Justice Stephen Breyer announced his intentions to retire, Biden began interviewing candidates and made good on his campaign promise by nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the position.

She had previously served as a clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer, as a public defender at the beginning of her career (something no other justice on the Supreme Court had done before), as well as in private practice and as a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Republicans in the Senate mostly opposed her nomination, and only Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney joined the Democrats in supporting Brown Jackson. On June 30, 2022, she was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts and her mentor, retiring Justice Breyer.