List of law schools attended by United States Supreme Court Justices
The Constitution does not require that any federal judges have any particular educational background, but the work of the Court involved complex questions of law – ranging from constitutional law to administrative law to admiralty law – and consequentially, a legal education has become a de facto prerequisite to appointment on the Supreme Court. Every person who has been nominated to the Court has been an attorney.[1]
Before the advent of modern law schools in the United States, justices, like most attorneys of the time, completed their legal studies by "reading law" (studying under and acting as an apprentice to more experienced attorneys) rather than attend a formal program. The first Justice to be appointed who had attended an actual law school was Levi Woodbury, appointed to the Court in 1846. Woodbury had attended Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut, the most prestigious law school in the United States in that day, prior to his admission to the bar in 1812. However, Woodbury did not earn a law degree. Woodbury's successor on the Court, Benjamin Robbins Curtis, who received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1832, and was appointed to the Court in 1851, was the first Justice to bear such a credential.[2]
Associate Justice James F. Byrnes, whose short tenure lasted from June 1941 to October 1942, was the last Justice without a law degree to be appointed; Stanley Forman Reed, who served on the Court from 1938 to 1957, was the last sitting Justice from such a background. In total, of the 112 Justices appointed to the Court, 46 have had law degrees, an additional 18 attended some law school but did not receive a degree, and 47 received their legal education without any law school attendance.[2]
Four or more Justices
- Harvard Law School – 19 alumni; 15 graduates
- Harry Blackmun
- Louis Brandeis
- William J. Brennan, Jr.
- Stephen Breyer
- Henry Billings Brown – also studied law at Yale, did not receive law degree from either
- Harold Hitz Burton
- Benjamin Robbins Curtis
- Felix Frankfurter
- Melville Fuller – did not graduate; Chief Justice
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg – graduated from Columbia Law School
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- Elena Kagan
- Anthony Kennedy
- William Henry Moody – did not graduate
- Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. – LLM graduate
- John Roberts – Chief Justice
- Edward Terry Sanford
- Antonin Scalia
- David Hackett Souter
- Yale Law School – 10 alumni, 8 graduates
- Samuel Alito
- Henry Billings Brown – also studied law at Harvard, did not receive law degree from either
- David Davis
- Abe Fortas
- Sherman Minton – LLM graduate, attended Indiana University
- George Shiras, Jr. – did not graduate
- Sonia Sotomayor
- Potter Stewart
- Clarence Thomas
- Byron White
- Columbia Law School – 7 alumni, 4 graduates
- Benjamin N. Cardozo – completed two years, did not graduate
- William O. Douglas
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg – also attended Harvard Law School
- Charles Evans Hughes – Chief Justice
- Joseph McKenna – studied at the law school, did not graduate
- Stanley Forman Reed – also attended University of Virginia School of Law, did not graduate from either
- Harlan Fiske Stone – Chief Justice
Three Justices
- University of Michigan Law School
- Litchfield Law School (defunct)
- Henry Baldwin
- Ward Hunt
- Levi Woodbury – first justice to have attended law school
Two Justices
- Albany Law School
- David Josiah Brewer
- Robert H. Jackson – completed one year program, awarded "diploma of graduation" rather than LL.B. due to age[3]
- Cincinnati Law School (University of Cincinnati College of Law)
- Willis Van Devanter
- William Howard Taft – Chief Justice (and former President)
- Cumberland School of Law
- Indiana University Maurer School of Law
- Sherman Minton
- Wiley Blount Rutledge – studied part-time before leaving and completing degree at University of Colorado School of Law[4][5]
- Northwestern University School of Law
- Stanford Law School
- Sandra Day O'Connor
- William Rehnquist – Chief Justice
- University of Virginia School of Law
- James Clark McReynolds
- Stanley Forman Reed – also attended Columbia Law School, did not graduate from either
- Washington and Lee University School of Law
One Justice
- Howard University School of Law
- New York Law School
- Transylvania University School of Law
- Tulane University Law School
- Edward White – Chief Justice
- University of Alabama School of Law
- University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
- Earl Warren – Chief Justice
- University of Colorado School of Law
- Wiley Blount Rutledge – originally studied at Indiana University prior to attending the University of Colorado
- University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law
- University of Pennsylvania Law School
- University of Texas School of Law
- Mitchell Hamline School of Law
- Warren Earl Burger – Chief Justice
University or college trained
These justices were educated at the equivalent of what would today be an undergraduate level, but did not receive legal education at the graduate level, the model under which law schools in the U.S. are currently organized.
- Brigham Young University
- George Sutherland – also attended University of Michigan Law School
- Carleton College
- Case Western Reserve University
- Centre College
- Frederick Moore Vinson – Chief Justice
- College of William and Mary
- John Marshall – Chief Justice
- Philip Pendleton Barbour
- Bushrod Washington
- John Blair
- Columbia University
- John Jay – Chief Justice
- Samuel Blatchford
- Dartmouth College
- Salmon P. Chase - Chief Justice
- Emory University
- Middlebury College
- Princeton University
- Oliver Ellsworth – Chief Justice
- William Paterson
- Mahlon Pitney
- Rutgers University
- Saint Joseph's University
- Joseph McKenna – also took law courses at Columbia Law School but was not enrolled in a degree program
- Trinity College, Dublin
- University of Georgia
- University of Michigan
- University of St Andrews
- James Wilson – also attended the University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow but did not graduate
- Washington and Lee University
- Wesleyan University
- David Josiah Brewer – 1851–1854, transferred to and graduated from Yale
- Yale University
- David Josiah Brewer – transferred from Wesleyan University
- William Strong
No university legal education
Some justices received no legal education in a university setting, but were instead either trained through apprenticeships or were self-taught, as was common with many lawyers prior to the mid-20th century.
See also
- Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition
- List of United States Supreme Court Justices by time in office
- List of law schools in the United States
References
- ↑ Jeffrey A. Segal, Harold J. Spaeth, The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited (2002) p. 182.
- 1 2 Henry Julian Abraham, Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II (2007), p. 49.
- ↑ John Q. Barrett, Albany in the Life Trajectory of Robert H. Jackson, 68 Alb. L. Rev. 513, 529 (2005)
- ↑ John M. Ferren, Salt of the Earth, Conscience of the Court: The Story of Justice Wiley Rutledge (2004) p.31, available at https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eYxoeW1_AXsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=wiley+b.+rutledge+biography&ots=rf9KxIpccB&sig=rYkVZWRICGJ-9M2dxgZMas_INJg#v=onepage&q=wiley%20b.%20rutledge%20biography&f=false
- ↑ Fowler v. Harper, "Justice Rutledge and The Bright Constellation" (1965) pp.9-10
- "Judges of the United States Courts". Official website of the Federal Judicial Center. Archived from the original on November 7, 2004. Retrieved November 21, 2004.
- source for seat information
- "Members of the Supreme Court from the Supreme Court of the United States" (PDF). Official website of the Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved May 29, 2005.
- PDF (28 kB)
- source for term of active service
External links
- Decisions and biography by Justice
- Thorough Supreme Court site by Northwestern University
- Biographies of Supreme Court Justices at michaelariens.com
- The Supreme Court Historical Society