chief justice

Related to chief justice: Chief Justice Rehnquist, Associate justices

Chief Justice

The presiding, most senior, or principal judge of a court. Although the office of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a prestigious position, the functions and powers of the chief justice are not well-defined. The U.S. Constitution contains only one mention of the chief justice, in Article I, Section 3, and it concerns the Impeachment of the president: "When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside." The Judiciary Act of 1789, which created the Supreme Court, specified only "[t]hat the supreme court of the United States shall consist of a chief justice and five associate justices" (1 Stat. 73). As a result, each individual who has occupied the post has had the freedom to shape and define the role.

Like the associate justices of the Supreme Court, the chief justice is appointed for life by the president but must first be confirmed by the Senate. Prior service on the Court is not required, though several chief justices, including harlan f. stone and william h. rehnquist, served as associate justices before becoming chief justice. Many chief justices served in other branches of government before joining the Court: John Marshall and roger b. taney were cabinet members, edward d. white was a U.S. senator, and Earl Warren was governor of California. Other chief justices came to the Court as judges from lower federal and state courts or practiced law prior to their appointments.

The chief justice's primary duty is to preside over all Supreme Court proceedings, both those open to the public and those held in private. The chief justice traditionally opens and closes the public sessions in which the Court hears oral arguments. He or she wields the most influence in closed-door proceedings. The chief justice determines which decisions the Court will discuss in conferences where the justices choose the cases they will accept for review. The chief justice also leads the private discussions on cases recently argued. After presenting the facts and issues in such a case and the relevant law, the chief justice states her or his conclusions and casts a vote. The discussion continues in order of seniority, with each associate justice presenting her or his views and vote.

If the chief justice is in the majority after voting has concluded, he or she assigns the writing of the opinion in the case. This critical responsibility provides the chief justice with an important opportunity to influence the out-come of the case, since he or she can assign the case to a justice who he or she believes has similar views. The chief justice may also assign the authorship of the opinion to himself or herself, as many chief justices have done in cases involving far-reaching constitutional issues. If the chief justice is not in the majority, the senior justice in the majority has the power of assignment.

The chief justice is also responsible for the overall management of the Supreme Court, including the oversight and supervision of the Court's clerks, marshal, reporter of decisions, librarian, and other officers, and the handling of various personnel management issues. The chief justice estimates the Court's budget and designates the officials to present it to the appropriate congressional committees. Although the chief justice is expected to avoid overt participation in political activities, many have acted as public advocates for the Court before Congress. william h. taft, the only chief justice to have also served as president, actively promoted the Judiciary Act of 1925. That landmark legislation, designed to help the Court manage its large backlog of cases, gave the Court almost unlimited discretion to decide the cases it would accept for review. warren e. burger, chief justice from 1969 to 1986, lobbied for the establishment of a national court of appeals to help alleviate the backlog of federal cases and actively promoted other judicial reform proposals. In 1988, Rehnquist, appointed to succeed Burger,

Succession of Supreme Court Justices
This table is designed to aid the user in identifying the succession of justices on the Supreme Court. Read vertically, the table lists the succession of justices in each position of the Court and the years served by each.
The number of justices constituting the Supreme Court has varied. Initially, the Court comprised six justices, but Congress increased the number to seven in 1807, to nine in 1837, and then to ten in 1863. In 1866, Congress reduced the number of justices to eight in an effort to prevent President Andrew Johnson from making any appointments to the Court. As a result, the positions of John Catron, who died in 1865, and James M. Wayne, who died in 1867, were abolished. In 1869, Congress raised the number of justices to nine, where it has remained. William Strong, the first justice appointed under the new statute, has generally been considered to have succeeded Wayne. Thus, Catron is the only person who has held the tenth seat on the Court.
Chief	Justices Associate Justices
^aAppointment not confirmed.
^bAssociate justice, 1894–1910.
^cAssociate justice, 1925–1941.
^dLater chief justice, 1910–1921.
^eAppointment as chief justice but not confirmed; resigned.
^fDeclined appointment.
^gAssociate justice, 1971–1986.
^hLater chief justice, 1941–1946.
ⁱLater chief justice, 1986–.
Jay	J. Rutledge	Cushing	Wilson	Harrison^f	Iredell	Todd	Field	McKinley	Catron
1789–1795	1789–1791	1789–1810	1789–1798	1789	1790–1798	1807–1826	1863–1897	1837–1852	1837–1865
J. Rutledge^a	T. Johnson	Story	Washington	Blair	Moore	Trimble	McKenna	Campbell
1795	1791–1793	1811–1845	1798–1829	1789–1796	1799–1804	1826–1828	1898–1925	1853–1861
Ellsworth	Paterson	Woodbury	Baldwin	S. Chase	W. Johnson	McLean	Stone^h	Davis
1796–1799	1793–1806	1845–1851	1830–1844	1796–1811	1804–1834	1829–1861	1925–1941	1862–1877
J. Marshall	Livingston	Curtis	Grier	Duvall	Wayne	Swayne	R. Jackson	Harlan
1801–1835	1806–1823	1851–1857	1846–1870	1812–1835	1835–1867	1862–1881	1941–1954	1877–1911
Taney	Thomson	Clifford	Bradley	Barbour	Strong	Matthews	Harlan	Pitney
1836–1864	1823–1843	1858–1881	1870–1892	1836–1841	1870–1880	1881–1889	1955–1971	1912–1922
S. P. Chase	Nelson	Gray	Woods	Daniel	Shiras	Brewer	Rehnquistⁱ	Sanford
1864–1873	1845–1872	1882–1902	1881–1887	1841–1860	1892–1903	1889–1910	1971–1986	1923–1930
Waite	Hunt	Holmes	L. Lamar	Miller	Day	Hughes	Scalia	Roberts
1874–1888	1873–1882	1902–1932	1888–1893	1862–1890	1903–1922	1910–1916	1986–	1930–1945
Fuller	Blatchford	Cardozo	H. Jackson	Brown	Butler	Clarke		Burton
1888–1910	1882–1893	1932–1938	1893–1895	1891–1906	1922–1939	1916–1922		1945–1958
E. White^b	E. White^d	Frankfurter	Peckham	Moody	Murphy	Sutherland		Stewart
1910–1921	1894–1910	1939–1962	1895–1909	1906–1910	1940–1949	1922–1938		1958–1981
Taft	Van Devanter	Goldberg	Lurton	J. Lamar	Clark	Reed		O'Connor
1921–1930	1911–1937	1962–1965	1910–1914	1911–1916	1949–1967	1938–1957		1981–
Hughes	Black	Fortas^e	McReynolds	Brandeis	T. Marshall	Whittaker
1930–1941	1937–1971	1965–1969	1914–1941	1916–1939	1967–1991	1957–1962
Stonec	Powell	Blackmun	Byrnes	Douglas	Thomas	B. White
1941–1946	1971–1988	1970–1994	1941–1942	1939–1975	1991–	1962–1993
Vinson	Kennedy	Breyer	W. Rutledge	Stevens		Ginsburg
1946–1953	1988–	1994–	1943–1949	1976–		1993–
Warren			Minton
1953–1969			1949–1956
Burger			Rehnquist^g
1969–1986			1986–
Brennan			Souter
1956–1990			1990–

was instrumental in the passage of the Judicial Improvements and Access to Justice Act (Pub. L. 100–702, Nov. 19, 1988, 102 Stat. 4642), which was intended to make the appeal process more efficient by reducing the Supreme Court's mandatory appeal jurisdiction.

Another responsibility of the chief justice is to oversee the administration of the entire federal judiciary. In 1922, Congress established the

Judicial Conference of the United States, the governing body for the administration of the federal judicial system. As chair of the conference, the chief justice presides over the conference's biannual meeting, manages the agenda, and appoints committees. The chief justice also chairs the administrative office of the u.s. courts, created in 1939 during Taft's term as chief justice, and the Federal Judicial Center, established in 1967 under Warren. Like the Judicial Conference, these organizations are also involved in the administration and management of the federal judiciary with the chief justice playing a major role in the selection of directors and other personnel to run them.

Congress has also provided chief justices with a number of duties not specially related to the judiciary. The chief justice traditionally serves as a member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and sits on the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Art, both located in Washington, D.C.

chief justice

n. the presiding judge of any State Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court is appointed by the President and then confirmed (or not) by the U. S. Senate. The Chief Justice sets the tone for the Court, assigns the writing of majority opinions to fellow justices or to himself/herself, and oversees the management of the court and its staff. Since U. S. Supreme Court justices serve for life or until voluntary retirement, they can have long-term influence. There have been only 16 U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justices in over 200 years. All but two were appointed from outside the ranks of existing Associate Justices.

chief justice

in many jurisdictions, the judge presiding over a supreme court or a bench of judges.

CHIEF JUSTICE, officer. The president of a supreme court; as the chief justice of the United States, the chief justice of Pennsylvania, and the like. Vide 15 Vin. Ab. 3.

chief justice

chief justice

chief justice

chief′ jus′tice

chief justice

Chief Justice

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chief justice

chief justice

chief justice

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noun the judge who presides over a supreme court

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