Bios of the Supreme Court Justices

William H. Rehnquist

William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on October 1, 1924. He married Natalie Cornell, now deceased, and has three children: James, Janet, and Nancy. From 1943 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Army Air Force. He received a B.A., M.A., and LL.B from Stanford University, and an M.A. from Harvard University. He served as a law clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1951 and 1952 terms, and practiced law in Phoenix, Arizona from 1953 to 1969. He served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel from 1969 to 1971. President Nixon nominated him to the Supreme Court, and he took his seat as an Associate Justice on January 7, 1972. Nominated as Chief Justice by President Reagan, he assumed that office on September 26, 1986.

John Paul Stevens

John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice, was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 20, 1920. He married Maryan Mullholland, and has four children: John Joseph, Kathryn Stevens Jedicka, Elizabeth Jane Sesemann, and Susan Roberta Mullen. He received an A.B. from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law. He served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1945, and was a law clerk to Justice Wiley Rutledge of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1947 Term. He was admitted to law practice in Illinois in 1949. He was Associate Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Study of Monopoly Power of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1951 to 1952, and a member of the Attorney General's National Committee to Study Antitrust Law, 1953 to 1955. From 1970 to 1975, he served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. President Ford nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat December 19, 1975.

Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor, Associate Justice, was born in El Paso, Texas on March 26, 1930. She married John Jay O'Connor III in 1952 and has three sons: Scott, Brian, and Jay. She received her B.A. and LL.B from Stanford University. She served as Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County, California from 1952 to 1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany from 1954 to 1957. From 1958 to 1960, she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona, and served as assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. She was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in 1969 and was subsequently reelected to two 2-year terms. In 1975 she was elected Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Reagan nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat September 25, 1981.

Antonin Scalia

Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice, was born in Trenton, New Jersey on March 11, 1936. He married Maureen McCarthy and has nine children: Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane. He received his A.B. from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and his LL.B from Harvard Law School; he was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960 to 1961. He was in private practice in Cleveland, Ohio from 1961 to 1967, a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia from 1967 to 1971, and a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago from 1977 to 1982, and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University and Stanford University. He was chairman of the American Bar Association's Section of Administrative Law, 1981 to 1982, and its Conference of Section Chairman, 1982 to 1983. He served the federal government as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy from 1971 to 1972, Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 1972 to 1974, and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1974 to 1977. He was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. President Reagan nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat September 26, 1986

Anthony M. Kennedy

Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate Justice, was born in Sacramento, California on July 23, 1936. He married Mary Davis and has three children: Justin Anthony, Gregory Davis, and Kristin Marie. He received his B.A. from Stanford University and the London School of Economics, and his LL.B from Harvard Law School. He was in private practice in San Francisco, California, from 1961 to 1963, as well as in Sacramento, California from 1963 to 1975. From 1965 to 1988, he was a Professor of Constitutional Law at the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. He has served in numerous positions during his career, including a member of the California Army national Guard in 1961, the board of the Federal Judicial Center from 1987 to 1988, and two committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States: the Advisory Panel on Financial Disclosure Reports and Judicial Activities, subsequently renamed the Advisory Committee on Codes of Conduct, from 1979 to 1987, and the Committee on Pacific Territories from 1979 to 1990, which he chaired from 1982 to 1990. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1975. President Reagan nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat February 18, 1988.

David Hackett Souter

David Hackett Souter, Associate Justice, was born in Melrose, Massachusetts on September 17, 1939. He graduated from Harvard College, from which he received his A.B. After two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, he received an A.B. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, and an M.A. in 1989. After receiving an LL.B from Harvard Law School, he was an associate at Orr and Reno in Concord, New Hampshire, from 1966 to 1968, when he became an Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1971, he become Deputy Attorney General and in 1976, Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1978, he was named an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire as an Associate Justice in 1983. He became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990. President Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on October 9, 1990.

Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, was born in the Pin Point community of Georgia near Savannah, Georgia on June 23, 1948. He married Virginia Lamp in 1987, and has one child, Jamal Adeen, by a previous marriage. He attended Conception Seminar and received an A.B., cum laude, from Holy Cross College, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974. He was admitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an Assistant Attorney General of Missouri from 1974 to 1977, an attorney with the Monsanto Company from 1977 to 1979, and Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth from 1979 to 1981. From 1981 to 1982, he served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, and as Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982 to 1990. He became Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. President Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on October 23, 1991.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice, was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 15, 1933. She married Martin D. Ginsburg in 1954, and has a daughter, Jane, and a son, James. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, attended Harvard Law School, and received her LL.B. from Columbia Law School. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Edmund L. Palmieri, Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1959 to 1961. From 1961 to 1963, she was a research associate and then associate director of the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure. She was a Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law from 1963 to 1972, and Columbia Law School from 1972 to 1980, and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California, from 1977 to 1978. In 1971, she was instrumental in launching the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as the ACLU's General Counsel from 1973 to 1980; she served on the National Board of Directors from 1974 to 1980. She was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. President Clinton nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1993, and she took her seat on August 10, 1993.

Stephen G. Breyer

Stephen G. Breyer, Supreme Court Justice of the United States, was born in San Francisco, California on August 15, 1938. He married Joanna Blakenham, who currently works as a clinical psychologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He received his undergraduate degree at Stanford University, and in the late 1950s, Breyer served in the U.S. Army. He then studied for two years at Oxford University, and returned to receive his LL.B. from Harvard Law School. After Harvard, Breyer served as a law clerk for Justice Arthur J. Goldberg, spent two years in the Antitrust Division in the Justice Department, and returned to Harvard to teach. In addition, Breyer served as chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Ted Kennedy in the late 1970s. Since 1980, he has served as the chief judge of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. He was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in July 1994.

Adapted from The Supreme Court of the United States, courtesy of Supreme Court Historical Society.