A Supreme Court Justice is one of the nine lifetime-appointed judges who sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, the country’s highest court and the final authority on what federal law and the Constitution mean. One Justice serves as Chief Justice and the other eight as Associate Justices. Each is nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and holds the office for life unless they retire, die, or are removed through impeachment. Their rulings cannot be appealed to any other body.
How Many Justices There Are
Federal law fixes the Court at nine members: one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, with six needed for a quorum.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1 – Number of Justices; Quorum Congress has changed that number several times in the past, but it has stayed at nine since 1869. John G. Roberts, Jr. has served as Chief Justice since 2005.2Supreme Court of the United States. Current Members
The Chief Justice carries responsibilities the Associate Justices do not. During the Court’s private conferences, the Chief leads discussion of pending cases and, when voting with the majority, decides which Justice will write the opinion. The Chief Justice also presides over any presidential impeachment trial in the Senate. Associate Justices are ranked by the date they joined the Court, and that seniority matters in practice: the most senior Justice in the majority assigns the opinion whenever the Chief Justice dissents.
Who Can Become a Justice
The Constitution sets no formal qualifications for the job. Article II gives the President the power to nominate Justices, but it imposes no age minimum, no citizenship requirement, and no educational threshold.3Legal Information Institute. Constitution Annotated – Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 – Overview of the Appointments Clause A nominee does not have to be a judge. A nominee does not even have to be a lawyer.
In practice, every modern Justice has arrived with heavy legal credentials. All current members attended elite law schools and served as federal appellate judges before being nominated. Presidents lean toward candidates with long judicial records because those records give senators and the public something concrete to evaluate. These are political norms, not legal requirements.
How a Justice Is Chosen
A vacancy opens when a Justice retires, takes senior status, or dies. The President selects a nominee, often working from recommendations by advisors, the Department of Justice, and outside legal networks. Once the President formally announces the pick, the process shifts to the Senate under the “advice and consent” clause.3Legal Information Institute. Constitution Annotated – Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 – Overview of the Appointments Clause
The Senate Judiciary Committee holds public hearings. The nominee answers questions about their judicial philosophy, past rulings, and personal background, and outside witnesses testify for or against. After deliberation, the committee votes on whether to send the nomination to the full Senate.
On the floor, a simple majority confirms the nominee.4United States Senate. About Voting Since 2017, ending debate on a Supreme Court nomination also requires only a simple majority rather than the 60 votes previously needed to overcome a filibuster.5Congressional Research Service. Senate Proceedings Establishing Majority Cloture for Supreme Court Nominations That change made it substantially harder for a minority of senators to block a nominee from reaching a final vote. Once confirmed and sworn in, the new Justice begins serving immediately. The full process can run weeks or months depending on political dynamics.
What a Justice Does
The Court’s term runs from the first Monday in October through late June or early July. The work breaks into three main activities: deciding which cases to hear, hearing them, and writing opinions that explain the outcome.
Choosing the Cases
Each year, parties file roughly 7,000 petitions asking the Court to review their cases. The Court agrees to hear only about 70 to 80. Getting on the docket requires at least four of the nine Justices to vote yes, a threshold known informally as the “rule of four.” Most cases that clear it involve conflicting rulings among the federal appeals courts or raise significant constitutional questions.
To handle the volume, most Justices participate in a shared arrangement where law clerks divide the petitions and write memos recommending whether each one deserves full review. Each Justice weighs those memos alongside their own clerks’ assessments before the conference vote.
Oral Arguments and Voting
When the Court agrees to hear a case, both sides submit written briefs, and their attorneys later present oral arguments in a public session. Arguments typically last an hour, with 30 minutes per side. Justices interrupt often, and the questions they ask usually reveal more about the Court’s thinking than the attorneys’ prepared remarks do.
After argument, the Justices meet in a private conference to discuss the case and vote. No staff or observers are allowed. The Chief Justice speaks first, followed by the others in order of seniority.
Writing the Opinion
The senior Justice in the majority assigns who will write the majority opinion, which sets out the binding legal reasoning that lower courts must follow. When the Chief Justice is in the majority, that assignment power belongs to the Chief. Other Justices may write concurring opinions, agreeing with the result but offering different reasoning, or dissenting opinions, disagreeing with the outcome entirely. Dissents carry no binding force, but influential ones sometimes shape later cases when the Court revisits an issue.
Drafts circulate internally, and Justices exchange revisions and occasionally switch their votes as the reasoning develops. A case decided months after argument can look very different from the initial conference vote. The published opinions become the law of the land.
Emergency Applications
Each Justice is also assigned to one or more of the 13 federal judicial circuits. Those assignments matter most when a party files an emergency application seeking an immediate stay, injunction, or similar relief that cannot wait for normal briefing. Emergency applications go first to the Justice assigned to the relevant circuit, who may rule alone or refer the matter to the full Court.6Supreme Court of the United States. A Reporters Guide to Applications Pending Before the Supreme Court These rulings typically come without full briefing, oral argument, or detailed written opinions, and that lack of explanation has drawn increasing attention as significant questions on immigration, elections, and public health have been resolved this way.
Salary
For 2026, the Chief Justice earns $320,700 a year, and each Associate Justice earns $306,600.7United States Courts. Judicial Compensation Congress adjusts these figures periodically. The pay is modest compared to what most Justices could earn in private practice, but the position comes with a generous retirement structure.
A Justice who meets certain age-and-service thresholds can retire with full salary for life. The formula uses a sliding scale sometimes called the “Rule of 80”:8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 371 – Retirement on Salary; Retirement in Senior Status
- Age 65 with 15 years of service
- Age 66 with 14 years
- Age 67 with 13 years
- Age 68 with 12 years
- Age 69 with 11 years
- Age 70 with 10 years
A qualifying Justice can either retire fully, leaving the bench and receiving a lifetime annuity at the salary they were earning at departure, or take senior status. Senior status keeps the title and office, but continued full salary requires annual certification that the Justice is performing judicial or administrative work equal to at least three months of an active judge’s workload.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 371 – Retirement on Salary; Retirement in Senior Status Most Justices who leave the bench take senior status, because it preserves their judicial commission and lets them continue hearing cases on the lower courts.
How Long a Justice Serves
Article III provides that Justices “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,” which functions as a lifetime appointment.9Legal Information Institute. Constitution Annotated – Article III, Section 1 – Good Behavior Clause Overview The framers designed it that way to insulate the judiciary from political pressure. A Justice who never faces reelection or reappointment can rule on the law without worrying about the next election cycle.
There are only three ways a Justice leaves the Court: voluntary retirement or senior status, death in office, or removal through impeachment. Congress cannot push a Justice out indirectly. The Constitution specifically bars reducing a Justice’s pay while they hold office.10Legal Information Institute. U.S. Constitution Article III
Impeachment is the only involuntary mechanism. The House votes on whether to impeach for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.11Legal Information Institute. Constitution Annotated – The Power of Impeachment Overview If it does, the Senate holds a trial, and conviction requires two-thirds of the senators present.12Library of Congress. Constitution Annotated – Article I, Section 3 That bar is deliberately high. Only one Supreme Court Justice has ever been impeached, Samuel Chase in 1804, and the Senate acquitted him in 1805.13Federal Judicial Center. Samuel Chase Impeached No Justice has ever been removed from office.
Ethics and Recusal
In November 2023, the Court adopted a written Code of Conduct, the first time all sitting Justices agreed to a unified ethics framework. It requires Justices to perform their duties impartially, avoid conduct that creates an appearance of impropriety, and limit outside activities that could interfere with their judicial work. Justices also file annual financial disclosures covering investments, outside income, gifts, and reimbursements from third parties.14Supreme Court of the United States. Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
Federal law requires a Justice to step aside from any case where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned, including situations involving personal bias, a financial interest in the outcome, prior involvement as a lawyer or government official, or a close family relationship with someone in the proceeding.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 455 – Disqualification of Justice, Judge, or Magistrate Judge Unlike a lower court where a substitute judge steps in, recusal at the Supreme Court means only eight Justices hear the case. If they split 4-4, the lower court’s decision stands with no national precedent set. Unlike lower federal judges, Supreme Court Justices face no formal enforcement mechanism for ethics violations short of congressional impeachment.