Name | Samuel A. ALITO | |
Prefix | Justice | |
Suffix | Jr. | |
Gender | Male | |
HIST | One Page University: Supreme Court FEBRUARY 5, 2016 – 5:00 AM – 0 COMMENTS By KATHLEEN MCCLEARY @KAMcCleary Birth, death, marriage, life, what it means to be a person, to have equal rights, to be fair—this is the stuff the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) examines every year, making decisions that become the law of the land. “The justices of the Supreme Court establish—by interpreting laws and a constitution—a set of laws for the country. Without that we have no laws,” says Nina Totenberg, legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio. Thousands of cases are sent to the Court every year. If four of the nine justices agree a case should be heard, the Court asks the federal courts to send up all the information about the case so they can review it (known as granting a writ of certiorari). The Court chooses cases with national significance: Do kids have the right to pray in school? Should workers pay fees to labor unions if they don’t want to be a member? Did President Obama exceed his powers in trying to protect illegal immigrants from deportation? They also take cases when the lower courts can’t agree how to interpret the law involved; SCOTUS’ decision then becomes the precedent that every court in the U.S. has to follow. Supreme Court: The Cases, the Building and the Stats | Who They Are | Justice Antonin Scalia, 79 Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, 1986 Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, 79 Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, 1988 Justice Clarence Thomas, 67 Nominated by President George H.W. Bush, 1991 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 82 Nominated by President Bill Clinton, 1993 Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 77 Nominated by President Bill Clinton, 1994 Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., 61 Nominated by President George W. Bush, 2005 Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., 65 Nominated by President George W. Bush, 2006 Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 61 Nominated by President Barack Obama, 2009 Justice Elena Kagan, 55 Nominated by President Barack Obama, 2010 QUIZ: Test Your Supreme Court IQ! | SCOTUS 101 | 1 Anybody can be a justice. The Constitution outlines two requirements: Justices are appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. They don’t have to be lawyers, judges, citizens or even 21. That said, every justice who’s ever served was a lawyer first. 2 There’s no term limit. Justices hold their position as long as they choose. William O. Douglas served more than 36 years! 3 Arguments are intimate.“You’re very close to the justices physically,” says law school professor and SCOTUS blog reporter Amy Howe, who argued two cases in front of the Court.The distance between the attorney podium and the justices’ bench is so short that if a justice and lawyer leaned very far forward, they could almost shake hands. STATS - 10,000 approxiate number of cases that appeal every year to the Supreme Court. 75-80 number of cases the Court agrees to hear $249,300 yearly salary of the justices (the chief makes $11,400 more) 30 maximum number of minutes an attorney has to argue a case 100-150 number of first-come, first-served public seats in the courtroom 0 TV cameras in the courtroom. Proceedings are never televised for security reasons and to discourage lawyers from playing to the camera or being intimidated or influenced by the presence of the media. [1] | |
_UID | 716E7CC381814CA39B90AE7137AF72BD6E16 | |
Person ID | I306451 | Singleton and other families |
Last Modified | 9 Feb 2016 |
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