Supreme Court TERMS OF COURT are traditionally referred to by the month and year in which said term convened (thus, at the time I am writing these very words [9 May 2001], the Supreme Court- still in session- is nearing the end of its OCTOBER 2000 Term). The number in brackets to the left of the TERM OF COURT at the left of the above table is the actual date of the month on which the Court convened that particular term (thus, for example, the aforementioned OCTOBER 2000 Term first met on 2 October 2000).

The date under each Supreme Court Justice's name when it first appears on the above chart is that of his or her taking of the Oath of Office, which marks the final step before the Justice is permitted to enter upon his or her judicial duties. In a number of cases, the Justice may have been confirmed by the Senate and/or may have received his or her Commission after confirmation well before the actual taking of the Oath of Office (this might be especially true where there is a significant gap between the end of service of the Justice's predecessor and the date shown for the successor Justice. In addition, especially as regards the early days of the Court (when Supreme Court Justices still "rode Circuit"), a given date may, in fact, reflect the taking of the Oath of Office before the Court itself while, at the same time, it is possible that the Justice in question may have taken an earlier Oath of Office in order to enter upon judicial duties related to holding Circuit Court; moreover, some of the earlier dates re: Justices entering upon judicial duties are somewhat questionable but are the best discerned at the time this table was created.

[VACANT] only appears where there was a significant length of time during which no person was in the Court seat during the transaction of judicial business in a given TERM OF COURT.

The Chief Justice is always in boldface and is always listed first (to the left of the table); the original 5 original Associate Justices have been listed across the table in order of their receiving their Commission after confirmation by the Senate which, as can be seen, has no necessary connection to the date these Justices entered upon their judicial duties (the date under their names where they appear at the top of the table). The reason for this is that, under the original Judiciary Act of 1789, seniority on the Court among the Associate Justices was determined by 1. date of Commission (not date of taking of the Oath of Office) and 2. where two or more Justices were commissioned on the same date, by age. For those who might be interested in the dates of Commission for the first Associate Justices (which determined their order on the above table), a listing follows:

Court seats later added by Congress are placed on the table in the order of their creation (in the case of the two seats added in 1837, the order is determined by order of dates of Commission- as in the case of the original Justices: Justice John Catron received his Commission on 8 March 1837 and Justice John McKinley received his Commission on 25 September 1837). The order of the current Associate Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court is solely determined by their lineal descent of succession from the original holders of their respective Court seats as thus determined; no other reason exists for the order in which these Justices happen to appear on the above table.

Judicial Branch
 
United States Supreme Court Justices (current)
Explanation of certain items in the "Justices of the United States Supreme Court" Table
 
Federal Court System
 
Federal, State, and Local Government - Judicial Branch