The following is a brief biography of one Supreme Court Justice who served at each possible yearly interval (rounded off) 0 Years: In and out (of his mind) John Rutledge. George Washington appointed the original six Supreme Court justices, including some of those who served the shortest time on the court. When Chief Justice John Jay resigned to become Governor of New York in 1795 Congress was not in session, so Washington appointed Rutledge (the first of the original six to resign four years earlier) as a recess appointment. He presided over the court's final day of the session. When the Senate came back and held a confirmation hearing, they concluded he was insane and rejected him, ending the shortest Supreme Court career possible 1 Year: Standby until I really need you James Byrnes When Franklin Roosevelt started his third term he was greeted with his sixth Supreme Court vacancy. Since his five appointees guaranteed a majority for any vote FDR cared about, he gave the seat to his friend and all-purpose sidekick James Byrnes. It was almost a retirement deal since his vote was likely to be superfluous for many years. Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt needed Byrnes to do something important, so he yanked him out and gave him a real job after just one year. 2 years: Gone too soon Robert Trimble When John Quincy Adams had a vacancy to fill in 1826 he chose a promising 50-year-old with nine years experience on the federal bench. The court was still dominated by Chief Justice John Marshall, but he was aging and after a few years by his side Trimble might be ready to be a worthy successor. Trimble died suddenly in 1828 at age 52 after a promising start and the Democratic Senate wouldn't let Adams-doomed to lose his reelection bid-to replace him. 3 years: Victim of the Quota system: Arthur Goldberg In the 1960s it was generally agreed that exactly one Supreme Court justice should be Jewish and one Roman Catholic. When Jewish Felix Frankfurter retired in 1962, Roman Catholic President John Kennedy chose his Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg to take his place. Goldberg joined a heavily liberal court and voted with the majority most of the time. He wrote a few lively opinions and seemed on his way to a solid career. President Lyndon Johnson however wanted his Jewish friend Abe Fortas on the court, not just to vote his way but act as his spy on the other justices. When Adlai Stevenson died suddenly in 1965 Johnson offered Goldberg his job as Ambassador to the United Nations and heaccepted, allowing Fortas to take his place. 4 years: Four for Fortas Fortas served Johnson well and when Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his retirement in 1968 Johnson nominated his friend to replace him. Johnson was leaving office so many objected to him being permitted to appoint the next chief. Though Democrats dominated the Senate, Republicans filibustered and Fortas withdrew the nomination. Richard Nixon became President in 1969 and started a Justice Department investigation,suspecting the Republican Senators knew something. They soon found that Fortas had taken a small consulting job to supplement the income loss by joining the court. Facing possible impeachment, Fortas resigned, leading to a bitter battle to replace him. 5 years: Woodbury would be too soon buried The first Supreme Court Justice that attended law school didn't join the court until 1945. Levi Woodbury had served as Secretary of the Navy and was Secretary of the Treasury when the second bank of the US was destroyed and the Panic of 1837 followed. With all forgiven in 1845 President James K. Polk appointed him to a Supreme Court dominated by Chief Justice Roger Taney. He served five quiet years, then died suddenly in 1851 at age 62. 6 years: Curses for Curtis the Whig Party was not famous for having deep-seated principles, but any they had were embedded in the mind of President Millard Fillmore. After replacing General Zachary Taylor as President Fillmore knew he would not be the 1852 nominee. The death of Woodbury gave him what he knew would be his only appointee, so he chose Benjamin Roberts Curtis, a 42-year-old he thought could wage the war for Whig Party principles-as John Marshall had Federalist Party principles-for years after the party was defunct. Curtis didn't like the court, his young family didn't like Washington, DC., and he resigned in 1857 after being on the losing side of the Dred Scott decision, age 48. The Whig Party had just disappeared itself, barely a footnote in US history. 7 years: Garfield's gift from the grave: Stanley Matthews The unusual events that resulted in the election of Rutherford B. Hayes made him decide not to seek a second term and tread softly on all issues. His first Supreme Court vacancy produced a gem: John Marshall Harlan. When another vacancy appeared at the end of his term he chose Stanley Matthews, but the Senate blocked the nomination. Then James A. Garfield became President and renominated Matthews. He was approved by one vote. His most important opinion was that non-citizens must not be discriminated against. The rapid turnover of justices in the 1880s allowed him to rise rapidly in seniority until his sudden death at age 64 created another vacancy. 8 years: John Campbell, man of the south Fillmore did have one more vacancy before the end of his tenure, but the Senate rejected three nominees. When Franklin Pierce became President in 1853 a group of justices demanded he nominate John Archibald Campbell of Alabama. Pierce complied and Campbell, age 42 with a promising future, took his seat. He represented southern interests well, voting with the majority in the Dred Scott decision. When the Civil War started, he left the Court and became Secretary of War for the Confederacy. 9 years; He couldn't get to 10: Ward Hunt At the start of the 1870s three elderly Democrats on the court stubbornly refused to retire despite illness and senility. When the second of these passed on, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Ward Hunt to replace him. The court's main duty was to interpret the rights granted former slaves through the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments and they did well. Hunt was old-fashioned however and when he was faced with the task of deciding if Susan B. Anthony had broken the law by voting in the 1872 election, he decided she had before the trial, so women's rights had to wait. After a few years he suffered a stroke and couldn't return to work, but he didn't resign because he needed 10 years to get a full pension. In 1881 Congress passed a law giving him 30 days to retire and get full pension, so he did. 10 years: He just made it to 10; Mahlon Pitney President Taft planned to become Chief Justice, so when the Chief's spot became vacant he elevated Associate Justice Edward White (a Democrat who had served 16 years) hoping to be chosen as his replacement. Remaining court vacancies were given to people Taft believed would vote as he did and the last of these was New Jersey district judge Mahlon Pitney. When Taft became Chief Justice Pitney and Willis Van Devanter were still serving, but Pitney soon suffered a stroke and retired after 10 years on the court. 11 years: Charles Evans Hughes: once is not enough When Taft appointed 47-year-old Charles Evans Hughes to the Supreme Court in 1910 he knew he had made a wise choice. When Chief Justice Melville Fuller died months later he also knew Hughes would be an excellent choice to replace him,but he didn't because Taft wanted the job after his presidency and needed someone older who might die or retire at the right time. He promoted associate justice Edward White. As an associate justice Hughes was under-appreciated by his colleagues but not his party, so the Republicans chose him to run for President in 1916 and he left the court. He lost the election narrowly to incumbent Democrat Woodrow Wilson and resumed law practice. Taft replaced White in 1921 and when he retired weeks before his death in 1930, President Herbert Hoover chose the 67-year-old for the job he had long deserved, Chief Justice. The depression had just started and the elderly justices serving on the court didn't dare retire. Hughes and his colleagues had to persuade 90-year-old legendary jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes the end was near in 1932. By the end of 1936 Hughes was one of six justices 70 or older. The old men were mostly conservatives who were out of touch with the times and voted against new deal legislation, so FDR came up with his plan to add up to six more justices if they refused to retire or die. Congress wouldn't allow that,but over the next four years all but Hughes retired or died, plus 65-year-old Benjamin Cardozo. Useless against six Roosevelt appointees, Hughes retired in 1941 after 11 years as chief. going on 12 years: Samuel Blatchford The only justice whose tenure can be rounded to 12 years was Samuel Blatchford,with 11 years and three months. He was 62 when he replaced Ward Hunt,and his appointment was a favor from President Chester Alan Arthur to the political machine in New York that made him President with limited credentials. Blatchford joined the all-Republican court still hammering out 14th amendment cases. He dissented only twice as the court was harmonious. Democrats started joining the court later in the 1880s, so Blatchford was involved in a few controversial cases at the end of his tenure, but died in 1893 before the biggest cases of the era reached the court. 13years: Unlucky for minorities: Rufus Peckham Another New Yorker appointed by a New Yorker President was Rufus Peckham, appointed by Democrat Grover Cleveland in December 1895. He got there just in time to vote with the 7-1 majority in the Plessy versus Ferguson decision allowing segregated schools, and blacks were on the losing side of other cases he voted on. Though Democrats were outnumbered on the court, he was rarely on the losing side,and his sudden death in 1909 allowed President Taft to start manipulating the court to his liking. 14 years: John McKinley killing time Andrew Jackson wanted to thoroughly control the Supreme Court for decades after his presidency, so he persuaded Congress to increase the court from seven justices to nine at the end of Jackson's second term. They confirmed John Catron but held the ninth seat for Jackson's successor: Martin Van Buren. He chose John McKinley from Alabama. It was not clear if the court needed nine justices, so when three justices died in the early 1840s there was no rush to replace them. McKinley himself did little, as the court was dominated by Chief Justice Roger Taney throughout McKinley's tenure. 15 years: Brown not good for browns Even historians have to think long before listing the accomplishments of President Benjamin Harrison, but in his one term he appointed four Supreme Court justices and two circuit justices destined for important Supreme Court stints. Among his choices was Henry Billings Brown from Michigan, who authored the Plessy versus Ferguson decision. He believed judges should decide cases without concern for feelings and few cases display that more candidly. He served 15 solid years on the court (1891-1906) then retired at age 70 as he was becoming blind. 16 years: One of the Horsemen: Pierce Butler Pierce Butler was a specialist in railroad law working in Canada when President Warren G. Harding chose him for the Supreme Court late in 1922. Advances in American infrastructure and the development of labor unions made that a wanted commodity, and his lack of experience as a judge or elected official seemed like a good thing while William Howard Taft was Chief Justice. He voted with the conservative majority for the rest of Taft's tenure, then joined Charles McReynolds, George Sutherland and Willis Van Devanter as the “four horsemen” opposed to FDR's New Deal policies. Van Devanter and Sutherland retired, but he held out for death, which came at a convenient time for Roosevelt, November,1939, giving FDR his fifth appointment of his second term and absolute control of the court. 17 years: Burger fries the court Richard Nixon started his administration with a vacancy for Chief Justice. He chose Warren Burger hoping for law and order. Burger joined the liberal court and was on the losing side often, sometimes 8-1 in his first year. He decided to change his vote often to be on the winning side and moderate decisions. This was not often successful. He took no side on the abortion decision until all decisions were filed, then joined the winning side in the 7-2 decision. In his last years he joined conservatives in victory and defeat. He retired in 1986 to run the bicentennial celebration of the US Constitution. 18 years: Tom Clark, practical jurist Harry Truman chose men like himself for the court, practical men without plans to change America, and none fit the description better than Tom Clark. From 1949 to 1967 he wrote sensible decisions while some of his colleagues were using the court to rewrite laws. He could have stayed longer but President Johnson forced him to retire by making his son Attorney General so he could make Thurgood Marshall the first black justice in court history. 19 years: Man of mystery David Souter When he got his first court vacancy in 1990 George H. W. Bush didn't want any trouble with his nominee, so he chose little-known New Hampshireite David Souter. Souter had few written opinions, few articles and no known enemies. When asked about race relations he said he knew an Italian anda Jew. He was approved and surprised some by siding with the liberals, giving victories in cases defending abortion and other past decisions. In 2009, when it looked like he was about to rise to first in seniority on the liberal side he retired at 69, sealing his documents for 50 years so no one will soon know what he was thinking. Four years into his retirement, the world is still waiting for his memoirs, a speech or even an interview. 20 years: Solid professional Smith Thompson No two-term President had to wait longer for an appointment than James Monroe. When Henry Livingston died in 1823, Monroe chose Navy Secretary Smith Thompson for the vacancy. Thompson had spent 16 years on the New York Supreme Court before becoming Navy Secretary and was a contender (like all of Monroe's cabinet members) in the 1824 Presidential race. Thompson had no immediate impact on the court, but looked ahead to the decline of John Marshall. That didn't improve the situation. Chief Justice Taney was equally dominant, and Andrew Jackson's other appointees were tightly linked. Thompson lasted 20 solid years, dying on the job in December 1843, having done good work under two powerful chiefs. 21 years: A Stone between rocks. In 1925 Taft and four men he had picked dominated the court. Calvin Coolidge chose a college classmate of his, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone, to fill a vacancy. Stone would not fall under Taft's influence. His independent mind won the respect of Franklin Roosevelt, so when Hughes retired as Chief Justice in 1941, FDR elevated Stone to Chief,a mall concession to the Republican Party. It barely mattered, with seven Roosevelt Democrats controlling the court, some of them coveting Stone's seat. Stone died after five stormy years as Chief in 1946, aged 74. 22 years: Louis Brandeis and the birth of modern liberalism At the start of 1916 the Supreme Court had only two Democrats, Chief Justice Edward White and Charles McReynolds (who was voting like the Republicans). When a justice died suddenly Woodrow Wilson, facing a tough reelection fight, appointed Louis Brandeis-the court's first Jewish member and first modern liberal to fill the seat, securing a vital constituency Democrats have dominated ever since. Brandeis had never served in any government office, but was a famous lawyer upholding the interests of the common man against business and banks. At 59 he was older than the dead man he replaced, so a long career seemed unlikely. He hurt his own cause by pressuring Wilson's next appointee, John Hessin Clarke, to vote his way. Clarke got tired of arguing about what a real liberal is and resigned in 1922, leaving Brandeis on the losing side of most votes. When he agreed with the majority, he got to write important opinions about things like free speech and the right to privacy. When FDR appointed Felix Frankfurter in early 1939, Brandeis retired at 82, confident his legacy would be honored. He was replaced by the biggest liberal in the court's history: William O. Douglas. 23 years: Nathan Clifford, lonely Democrat In the 1850s three consecutive Presidents each appointed one Supreme Court Justice. The appointees of Fillmore and Pierce were noted above. James Buchanan was a loyal Democrat since the day the party formed. He was devoted to the legacy of Andrew Jackson and James K Polk (whom he had served at Secretary of State. Buchanan became President in 1857 because he represented the policies at the start of the party's existence while younger men represented a very different set of policies. For the Supreme Court, he chose Nathan Clifford, Polk's Attorney General and another original Democrat. Clifford proceeded to become the last voice of that era as Republicans swept to power and his older colleagues passed on. In 1872 he became senior justice after only 14 years and the last Democrat. He held on, despite obvious senility,until his death in 1881, aged 78. 24 years: Last of the founders Gabriel Duvall In filling his two Supreme Court vacancies James Madison reached as far into the past as possible and as far into the future as possible. He appointed 58-year-old Revolutionary War soldier Gabriel Duvall and 32-year-old Joseph Story. Duvall was Comptroller of the Treasury and former Maryland judge. He was older than Chief Justice Marshall and Madison counted on his aged wisdom to persuade arguments. It didn't matter,as Marshall continued to dominate the court. They got old together, becoming the first justices to pass age 80,neither wishing to let Andrew Jackson choose their successor. In early 1835, infirm and nearly deaf, he learned that Roger Taney would be his replacement and prepared for retirement, then Marshall died and Taney became chief. Jackson replaced Duvall with Philip Pendleton Barbour, who died after only six years on the court. 25 years: Justess Sandra Day O'Connor When Ronald Reagan made Sandra Day O'connor the first woman on the Supreme Court in 1981 everyone was happy. In an increasingly divided court she generally joined the conservatives,but with moderation that prevented any radical decisions being advanced. She voted with the 5-4 majority to stop the recount in Florida in 2000,Making George W. Bush President,then delayed her retirement until his second term. Like Duvall,she chose to retire just as her chief justice (William Rehnquist) was dying, so her intended replacement became his replacement. She delayed her retirement until her successor-Samuel Alito-was approved and left the court in 2006, early in her 25th year. Now83, she remains active in retirement, but rarely criticizes her former colleagues or new members. 26 years: Solid centrist Joseph McKenna When Stephen Field ended his record-breaking 34-year stint on the court in late 1897, William McKinley replaced him with his Attorney General Joseph McKenna. Though the seat had been introduced to moderate the wast coast, McKenna was from Philadelphia and his eastern, urban, Irish-Catholic roots impacted his decisions. He was a centrist and generally was in the majority in the mostly-Republican court. He rejected maximum-hour laws but upheld the Pure Food and Drug Act. A stroke in the mid-1910s hindered him, but he lingered until 1925, aged 81 overstaying as Field had and living about as long in retirement (a little less than two years). 27 years: Samuel Nelson under the wire No one liked President John Tyler. He was originally a Democrat, but turned Whig out of personal hostility to Andrew Jackson. That made him a Whig in name only (WINO) and an enemy to the party. He became President upon the death of William Henry Harrison and got little cooperation from Congress. His whole cabinet soon resigned and there was no hope any party would nominate him in 1844. In 1843 a Supreme Court Jsstice died, then another 1844. Congress rejected all of Tyler's nominees until the end of his term, then approved Samuel Nelson to prevent James K. Polk from starting with two nominees. Nelson joined the all-Democratic court dominated by Chief Justice Taney and quietly voted with the majority in most cases,including Dred Scott. He then remained on the court when Lincoln made it predominantly Republican. He became very ill and retired in 1872 at age 80. 28 years: Lincoln's leading jurist Samuel Miller Abraham Lincoln had three vacancies to fill very quickly, but the chaos at the start of the Civil War delayed their debuts to 1862. Samuel Freeman Miller was an antislavery lawyer with no elective or judicial experience, but his reputation was so strong that the 46-year-old was immediately approved. He defended Lincoln's policies but interpreted the 14th amendment narrowly,claiming individuals could discriminate. He did however support use of federal troops to stop the Ku Klux Klan. As members changed quickly,Miller attained more influence than the chiefs he worked with, and wrote more opinions than anyone in that era. 29 years: New justice for the new century Oliver Wendell Holmes In a different era, Oliver Wendell Holmes might have been chosen for the court 10 years younger, but he had to wait for the New England vacancy made possible by the retirement of his former colleague in the Massachusetts judiciary, Horace Gray,in 1902. Theodore Roosevelt promptly chose the legend. .Holmes was very different than the other justices of his era,and often found himself on the losing side of decisions. He became famous for his interpretation of the right to privacy and the limits of free speech. He lingered on the court through four justices, as Miller had, and was finally pushed into retirement by his colleagues at age 90 in 1932. 30 years: First dissenter William Johnson While justiceshave always disagreed about things, the idea that cases should have a detailed opposing opinion publicly revealed and useable in future cases was slightly radical in 1804. Thomas Jefferson appointed 32-year-old William Johnson,knowing hewould often lose to Chief Justice John Marshall, but wanting him to openly reveal hisreasons so public opinion might swingaway from Marshall and thus from his Federalist Party. Johnson did that often, almost always losing even after his Democratic-Republican Party took a 5-2majority on the court and drove the Federalist Party out of existence. The Democratic-Republican Party also ceased to exist and the new Democrats began to join the court before Johnson died on the job in 1834, aged 62. 31 years: Nepotism works out Bushrod Washington George Washington had no children, but he had one noteworthy nephew and John Adams appointed him-at age 36-to the Supreme Court in 1799. Together with Chief Justice john Marshall, he kept the founding principles of the Federalist Party dominant in the US and developed the Supreme Court into an important branch of government. Washington was the first justice to pass the 30-year milestone and died on the court in 1829 at 67. His devoted wife died of grief a few days later. 32 years: Stretching Jackson's legacy James Moore Wayne Andrew Jackson got a lot of life from most of his Supreme Court appointees. Taney and John Catron lasted 28 years, John McLean 31 and James Moore Wayne held on for32 years-1835 to 1867. That overlaps 11 Presidents, a record unlikely to be threatened again. Since most of his career was in the shadow of Taney he did not distinguish himself, but lingering past the death of Lincoln gave him dinosaur status few have achieved. 33 years: Most persuasive liberal William Brennan Some justices (Potter Stewart) retire as soon as a President they like takes office. Some (Warren Burger) retire during a President's second term. Some (David Souter) retire as soon as a President they don't like leaves office. Democrat Sherman Minton retired weeks before the 1956 election, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower hastily appointed a Democrat-William Brennan-to replace him in an effort to win more Democratic votes. He won, but regretted the appointment, as Brennan charmed moderates to his side on countless votes over the next 33 years. He pressured Charles Whittaker into a nervous breakdown, converted Harry Blackmun into a flaming liberal and nudged John Paul Stevens into the middle and eventually to leadership on the liberal side of a balanced court. When he retired in 1990,President Bush was scared to replace him with a conservative and chose the mysterious David Souter as his replacement, keeping the court from a conservative majority to this day. 34 years: John M. Harlan-the Great Dissenter When John Marshall Harlan's lawyer father named him after the legendary Chief Justice in 1833 he already hoped he would reach the top of the legal profession. The Civil War soldier rose quickly and was selected to the Supreme Court in 1877. Rutherford Hayes was under pressure to choose a justice acceptable to everyone and he did. Harlan was on the losing side of most cases over the 34years he served. 20 new justices joined the court during his tenure, appointed by Democrat Grover Cleveland and three different strains of Republicans, but Harlan never found a majority to stand by him on a tough vote. He was the lone dissenter in Plessy versus Ferguson, which endorsed racial segregation in public schools. With Oliver Wendell Holmes as a soulmate late in his tenure, and younger justices joining rapidly in 1911 it looked like he might finally start winning when he died suddenly at 78. 35 years: John Paul Stevens: quiet dignity When William O. Douglas reluctantly retired after a record-breaking tenure on the court,his successor had to be someone worth noting, and he was, but it was decades before anyone realized how valuable a commodity Gerald Ford had chosen in 1975. Stevens is a firm believer in stare decisis, that the court should not overturn past decisions, so he upheld even the most controversial decisions of the past. With a firm grasp of the first amendment, he was on the winning side of two delicate religious decisions one year. As the senior member on the liberal side of the court for 16 years, he saw to it that decisions were steeped in sound precedent and narrow to the case. He retired three days short of the second longest tenure in court history and eight months short of oldest ever, then wrote a book: Five Chiefs, about the five Chief Justices he knew over his long life. 36 years: The court's Don Quixote William O. Douglas The youngest man appointed to the Supreme Court in the20th century broke all endurance records and was involved in several of the most controversial decisions in court history. From 1939 to 1975 William O. Douglas was on the winning side most of the time, ending racial segregation, expanding rights to birth control and abortion, ending prayer in schools, redefining libel law and freedom of speech. The decisions didn't always go as far as he hoped, but his decisions, based on his interpretation of how things should be, were always lively. His whole life was lively, as he married four times, the last two to very young women. It took several severe maladies to get him to accept retirement in 1975.
I became interested in the justices about 12 years ago when I realized eight years had passed without a vacancy. They nearly broke the record until O'connor announced her retirement and Rehnquist died. I read The Brethren, so horrified I needed to read it in slow segments days apart in random order. Then I read their biographies in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Most of them get only two paragraphs. Then I read a long five volume book at the library. Several authors wrote about the ones they knew best. Some were so boring I fell asleep reading the references. Others were more lively. The best was about Robert jackson (1941-1955) because someone published Jackson's own comments about the court-even though he died on the job and it wasn't a memoir. In the process you begin to understand the sequence of events. I constructed this to gently show most of the political and social considerations and the convenience of being able to do it in this format is extraordinary. Did you notice my other article on court longevity? The stories overlap and supplement each other. I'm trying to assemble these and other articles into a series of books for young readers.
It's a flawed system and no doubt there should be limits on their terms. I'll throw out 10 years for the sake of discussion; I think that's the length of service for FBI directors these days, maybe.
Good: 10 years. Make that official with thestart of2015 and mandatory retirement and Obama will have namedall 9. Without mandatory retirement thefour newest can outlast all newappointees, giving them too much power. If that kicked in in 2005 Bush Jr. would haveappointed all 9 immediately. Without retirement of veterans RobertsandAlito would be planning to exit.Roberts might be the next President. (I think I'd vote for him.) In 1995 with mandatory retirement and Clinton gets four more in his first term (for a total of six) then two more later (one after impeachment). Bush startswith one,three in first term, eight total. Without retirement we get exactly what we got until Roberts' time runs out. In 1985 with mandatory retirement andReagan gets all nine,Bush Sr. one, Clinton eight, Bush Jr. nine, Obama nine. Without retirement Clinton gets five. It might beeasierto make it a cabinet post. If they were permitted asecondterm, theywouldn't know who they had to please and might do the job right. If they could do 10as associate and10asChief the best ones might get 20 and do something good. If they could return five years after leaving a few lucky ones might get the job back. Seniority is very important on the court. On that list all at the 10 year mark or below were insignificant. Souter retired when he did because if he had remained pastStevens he would have had a heavy burden hecouldn't handle. In his first year he saw ThurgoodMarshall struggle with the position ofsenior justice on the liberal side,followed by two years in which Byron White was senior if he sided with the liberals against chief Rehnquist but Harry Blackmun had to finda way to win his vote to gain a majority if he did not. Stevensdid that job beautifully but Souter knew he couldn't handle it. Breyer wants Ginzberg out so he can get that position,otherwise hiswhole career is trivial. Hugo Black was senior justice for 25 years,overshadowing three Chiefs. Harlan and Holmes made big impacts but usually on the losing side.
