The 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States is John Roberts Jr. He took his seat on September 29, 2005, having been nominated by President George W. Bush after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He has been described as …show more content…
Justices can not be forced to resign as there is no mechanism for removing a justice who is permanently incapacitated by illness or injury, but unable or unwilling to resign. Justices sometimes strategically plan their decisions to leave the bench, with personal, institutional, and partisan factors playing a role. The fear of mental decline and death often motivates a justice to step down or retire. There are currently three living retired justices of the Supreme Court of the United States: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, and David Souter. As retired justices, they no longer participate in the work of the Supreme Court, but may be designated for temporary assignments to sit on lower federal courts, usually the United States Courts of Appeals. The status of a retired Justice is analogous to that of a Circuit or District Judge who had taken senior status.
With few exceptions, the life of a U.S. Supreme Court Case begins when a lower court case ends, since the Supreme Court is primarily a court of appeals. The losing party in a lower court case must appeal and request entry onto the court’s calendar. The justices then decide whether to hear the case. In making the decision to accept to case to the Supreme Court, the most crucial factor of consideration is whether the case can shed new light …show more content…
The Judiciary Act of 1789 called for the appointment of six justices, and as the nation's boundaries grew, Congress added justices to correspond with the growing number of judicial circuits: seven in 1807, nine in 1837, and ten in 1863. In 1869, however, the Circuit Judges Act returned the number of justices to nine, where it has since remained. President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to expand the Court in 1937 in what is commonly referred to as the “Court packing plan”, but his attempts were rejected by the Senate. The Supreme Court has remained at nine justices. However, the Court currently has only eight justices and one vacancy after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13, 2016. President Donald Trump, who is looking to restore the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, met with key senators on Tuesday and promised to unveil his nominee next