History

The United States Supreme Court was conceived the day the founding fathers wrote these words on parchment and was born when the Constitution of the United States was ratified by the states. As the Supreme Court grew it incurred many obstacles, one of them was the pursuit of finding a place they could call home. First the Supreme Court tried out the Merchants Building in New York City, New York, then in 1790, it and the national capitol moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and it finally found its home town in 1800 when the Supreme Court tagged along with the national government to Washington D.C.(Court TV, 2002) When the Court made it to Washington D.C. it still had problems with where it was to reside. For the first ten years it bounced all over Capitol Hill and then from room to half finished room in the Capitol, it even found its way to holding meetings in a tavern on First Street. On February 10, 1810 the United States Supreme Court, now a mature institution, had moved off of Capitol Hill into their very own building built specifically for the Court.(2002) The Supreme Court has resided in Washington D.C. for two hundred and two years with no plans of ever moving again.
As the Supreme Court was developing, not only was the location changing but also the views of the Court. The views of the Court reflect the events that were stirring up at that time. At first the Court had to deal with being a developing nation with a lot of bumps to iron out. Marbury v. Madison was one of these bumps Chief Justice John Marshall had to iron out. This case established judicial review, which gave the courts the power to quash the actions of the legislative and executive branches unconstitutional.(Epstein, 2001) Marbury v. Madison established the Supreme Court as a force to be reckoned with, it gave the Court the right to check Congress and the president which subsequently led to our system of checks and balances. (Infoplease.com/History, 2002)

As the Court grew so did its justices. In the beginning there were only six members, five associates and one chief justice. In 1801, Congress added another associate justice and in 1869 the total of associate justices went up to eight. (Roy, 2002) The Congress could lawfully do this because there is no limit on how many justices can serve on the Supreme Court in Article III but after 1869 they finally came to a conclusion that nine justices was enough and there have been nine justices serving for one hundred thirty-three years. In 2002, there are still only eight associate justices, John Paul Stevens III, Sandra Day O�Connor, Antonio Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruther Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer, along with one chief justice William Hubbs Rehnquist.

Congress and the President have the say who gets to be an associate justice and a chief justice. The president nominates the person that he wants to be a justice and it is up to the Congress whether or not to support his choice or to deny him. The same process is done when there is a need for a new chief justice the president nominates a person that they want as chief justice and the Congress decides again whether or not to support him or deny him*. The first chief justice in the both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution was John Jay. (please click on his portrait to continue or on the Supreme Court to go back to the home page.)