Chief Justices

The 15 Greatest Supreme Court Justices Since 1900

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The Supreme Court has become more controversial than ever in recent years, and the decisions of the John Roberts Court in 2015 only added fuel to the fire, regarding who the greatest and worst Supreme Court Justices have been in American history.

We have had 112 Supreme Court Justices, and 17 Chief Justices, including 5 who served as Associate Justice as well.

58 Justices have served since 1900, with a few selected before that date but serving into the 20th century. This includes 9 Chief Justices, including four who had served as Associate Justices of the Supreme Court.

If one had to select the top 15 Supreme Court Justices since 1900, without ranking them specifically, but instead creating a list chronologically, they would be listed as follows:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Charles Evans Hughes
Louis Brandeis
Harlan Fiske Stone
Benjamin Cardozo
Hugo Black
Felix Frankfurter
William O. Douglas
Earl Warren
William J. Brennan, Jr.
Thurgood Marshall
Harry Blackmun
John Paul Stevens
Sandra Day O’Connor
Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Note that 9 of these 15 Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republicans—Holmes by Theodore Roosevelt; Hughes by William Howard Taft and then elevated to Chief Justice by Herbert Hoover; Stone by Calvin Coolidge; Cardozo by Herbert Hoover; Warren and Brennan by Dwight D. Eisenhower; Blackmun by Richard Nixon; Stevens by Gerald Ford; and O’Connor by Ronald Reagan.

Democratic Presidents chose the following: Brandeis by Woodrow Wilson; Black, Frankfurter and Douglas by Franklin D. Roosevelt; Stone elevated to Chief Justice by FDR; Marshall by Lyndon B. Johnson; and Ginsburg by Bill Clinton.

Republican Presidents And Ten Exceptional Supreme Court Appointments Since 1900!

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Republican Presidents have contributed many outstanding Supreme Court Justice from the time of Theodore Roosevelt through the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, from 1902 through 1990.

Ten Justices can be seen as having a very positive impact on the Court, often surprising the Republican Presidents who appointed them, as many could have been appointed by Democratic Presidents in retrospect!

These Justices include:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, appointed by Theodore Roosevelt, and serving from 1902-1932.

Harlan Fiske Stone, appointed by Calvin Coolidge, and serving as Associate Justice from 1925-1941, and then elevated to Chief Justice by Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941-1946.

Charles Evans Hughes, originally appointed by William Howard Taft, and serving as Associate Justice from 1910-1916, resigning to run as the Republican Presidential nominee in 1916, and then, reappointed, now as Chief Justice by Herbert Hoover, and serving from 1930-1941.

Benjamin Cardozo, appointed by Herbert Hoover, and serving from 1932-1938.

Earl Warren, appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and serving as Chief Justice from 1953-1969.

William Brennan, appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and serving from 1956-1990.

Harry Blackmun, appointed by Richard Nixon, and serving from 1970-1994.

John Paul Stevens, appointed by Gerald Ford, and serving from 1975-2010.

Sandra Day O’Connor, appointed by Ronald Reagan, and serving from 1981-2006.

David Souter, appointed by George H. W. Bush, and serving from 1990-2009.

Any scholarly listing of great Supreme Court Justices would certainly list Holmes, Warren, Brennan, Blackmun, and possibly Stevens in the top ten Supreme Court Justices of all time, a total of 112 Justices in the history of the Supreme Court up to now. And Stone, Hughes, Cardozo, O’Connor, and Souter would all rank in the next ten, making this list part of the top 20 out of the entire list. And Stone, Hughes and Warren served as Chief Justices, arguably the three best Chief Justices, following the greatest Chief Justice of all time, Chief Justice John Marshall (1801-1835)!

All of this above list, except Cardozo, served for a long time, from a low of 16 years for Warren, up to 35 for Stevens, and even Cardozo is rated as being an outstanding Justice, despite his short period on the Court.

So the Republican Party and Presidents, often by misjudgment or error, selected many of the greatest Supreme Court Justices in its history in the 20th century!

Chief Justices And The Presidential Oath Of Office

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Just a day and two away from the next quadrennial historic moment of a Chief Justice giving the oath of office to the President of the United States, it is interesting to look at the history of Chief Justices and Presidents they have sworn in.

The record of the most Presidents sworn in by a Chief Justice is Roger Taney, appointed by Andrew Jackson,who swore into office a total of seven Presidents–Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. And Lincoln was a great antagonist of Taney.

However, Chief Justice John Marshall, appointed by John Adams, had more total swearings into office of Presidents–a total of nine times–Thomas Jefferson twice, James Madison twice, James Monroe twice, John Quincy Adams once, and Andrew Jackson twice. And all but John Quincy Adams were his antagonists.

Then we have Chief Justice William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, who as the appointee of Warren G. Harding, swore in Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

And we have a former Presidential nominee, Charles Evans Hughes, who as Chief Justice, chosen by Herbert Hoover, swore in Franklin D. Roosevelt three times, and was a major antagonist of FDR and his Court “Packing” Plan.

And we have Chief Justice Earl Warren, appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who swore in Ike, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon, with Nixon being a major antagonist of Warren.

Finally, we have Chief Justice John Roberts, who has had a difficult relationship with Barack Obama, and who messed up the Inaugural oath in 2009 and had to redo it the next day for accuracy; made clear his annoyance at Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United decision in his State of the Union Address in 2010; and yet backed ObamaCare in June 2012, legitimizing it for the future and saving it from extinction. Still, Roberts is no “friend” of Obama.

And of course, some extremists talk of impeaching Roberts just for the act of swearing in Obama as President for the second time. But Roberts will not be deterred from his responsibility to do this, although in reality, any Justice or judge could swear in the President of the United States.

Chief Justice John Roberts Compared To Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes

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Chief Justice John Roberts has been compared to Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes by presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

Hughes, who had been the 1916 Republican Presidential nominee against Woodrow Wilson, and fought against aspects of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal in the 1930s, nevertheless backed the constitutionality of the Social Security Act in the mid 1930s.

John Roberts, who was opposed as Chief Justice by Senator Barack Obama in 2005, and who has taken a conservative stand on many issues, nevertheless backed the Obama Health Care law yesterday, siding with the progressive wing of the Court.

Hughes is regarded as one of the great Chief Justices, and after yesterday’s decision, Roberts will look much better in history, and could be Time Magazine’s MAN OF THE YEAR for 2012!

The Persecution Of Chief Justice John Roberts Begins: Threats Of 2nd Amendment “Remedies”!

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Chief Justice John Roberts was a true “profile in courage” this morning in siding with the four Democratic appointees on the Supreme Court, and upholding the Obama Health Care law.

Roberts, despite his other shortcomings in the minds of progressives, including reaffirming the Citizens United case in another case involving Montana this week, has shown open mindedness on the immigration issue, and now on the health care issue.

He is concerned about the image of the Supreme Court, trying to avoid making it an overly partisan body, as it was in the Bush V. Gore case of 2000, which seriously damaged the image of the Supreme Court.

Roberts has a sense of history, and two Harvard Law School professors, Laurence Tribe and Walter Dellinger, correctly came to the conclusion that he would do what he did today.

Roberts, appointed by George W. Bush in 2005, has shown growth and great insight, and if he continued along the road he showed this week on immigration and health care, he could rank among the great Chief Justices by the time he retires in the next 20 years or so, considering he was appointed to the Court at age 50.

It would be great if long term, we could say Roberts ranks with John Jay, John Marshall, Charles Evans Hughes, and Earl Warren. He has begun the first steps along that road!

But he will have to bear severe criticism and bitter attacks from Republicans in Congress, and hateful right wing talk show hosts. He should be proud of defying them, and doing the right thing, and being insulated on the Court, he can suffer the attacks without having to comment on them.

But it is sad and scary that some right wing nuts talk about a Second Amendment “remedy”, implying bloodshed and violence against, maybe, President Obama, or Chief Justice Roberts, or really anyone who believes that all Americans are entitled to good health care!

The government needs to step up infiltration of right wing groups who are actively plotting to bring about a Fascist takeover, and are ready and willing, through militia groups, to plot the death of our leaders for having principles and morals and strong beliefs!

Right now, we can pray for the safety and good health of President Obama, Chief Justice John Roberts, and all good people who believe in humanity, social justice, and common decency!