Media figures have advanced the myth that judicial experience is a pre-requisite for a Supreme Court justice. In fact, two of the last four previous chief justices -- William Rehnquist and Earl Warren -- had no judicial experience when first nominated to the Court by Republican presidents. Neither did other famous justices, including Felix Frankfurter, Louis Brandeis, and John Marshall, known as the “Great Chief Justice.”
Rehnquist, Warren, Frankfurter, Brandeis, and Marshall are far from alone. Indeed, according to Findlaw.com's Supreme Court Center, 40 of the 111 Supreme Court justices had no judicial experience when they were first nominated.
UPDATE: According to Henry J. Abraham's* book, Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II, there were 38 justices with no prior judicial experience.
The list from Findlaw.com:
|
Name of Justice
|
Prior Occupations
|
Years On Court
|
Appointed By President:
|
|
1. William Rehnquist
|
Asst. U.S. Attorney General
|
1972-2005
|
Nixon (Assoc., 1972),
Reagan (Chief, 1986)
|
|
2. Lewis Powell
|
President of the American Bar Ass'n,
Private Practice
|
1972-1987
|
Nixon
|
|
3. Abe Fortas
|
Private Practice
|
1965-1969
|
Johnson
|
|
4. Byron White
|
Deputy U.S. Attorney General
|
1962-1993
|
Kennedy
|
|
5. Arthur Goldberg
|
U.S. Secretary of Labor
|
1962-1965
|
Kennedy
|
|
6. Earl Warren
|
Governor of California
|
1953-1969
|
Eisenhower
|
|
7. Tom Clark
|
U.S. Attorney General
|
1949-1967
|
Truman
|
|
8. Harold Burton
|
U.S. Senator
|
1945-1958
|
Truman
|
|
9. Robert Jackson
|
U.S. Attorney General
|
1941-1954
|
F. Roosevelt
|
|
10. James Francis Byrnes
|
U.S. Senator
|
1941-1942
|
F. Roosevelt
|
|
11. William O. Douglas
|
Chairman of the S.E.C.
|
1939-1975
|
F. Roosevelt
|
|
12. Felix Frankfurter
|
Asst. U.S. Attorney, Asst. Secretary of War, Prof. of Law at Harvard
|
1939-1962
|
F. Roosevelt
|
|
13. Stanley Forman Reed
|
U.S. Solicitor General
|
1938-1957
|
F. Roosevelt
|
|
14. Owen Josephus Roberts
|
Special Counsel in “Teapot Dome”
investigation and trials
|
1930-1945
|
Hoover
|
|
15. Harlan Fiske Stone
|
U.S. Attorney General
|
1925-1946
|
Coolidge (Assoc., 1925),
F. Roosevelt (Chief, 1941)
|
|
16. Pierce Butler
|
County Attorney, Private Practice
|
1923-1939
|
Harding
|
|
17. George Sutherland
|
U.S. Senator
|
1922-1938
|
Harding
|
|
18. Louis Brandeis
|
Private Practice
|
1916-1939
|
Wilson
|
|
19. James Clark McReynolds
|
U.S. Attorney General
|
1914-1941
|
Wilson
|
|
20. Charles Evans Hughes
|
Governor of New York,
U.S. Secretary of State
|
1910-1916,
1930-1941
|
Taft (Assoc., 1910),
Hoover (Chief, 1930)
|
|
21. William Henry Moody
|
U.S. Attorney General
|
1906-1910
|
T. Roosevelt
|
|
22. George Shiras, Jr
|
Private Practice
|
1892-1903
|
Harrison
|
|
23. Melville Fuller
|
Private Practice
|
1888-1910
|
Cleveland
|
|
24. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar
|
U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Senator
|
1888-1893
|
Cleveland
|
|
25. Joseph Philo Bradley
|
Private Practice
|
1870-1892
|
Grant
|
|
26. Salmon P. Chase
|
U.S. Treasury Secretary
|
1864-1873
|
Lincoln
|
|
27. Samuel Freeman Miller
|
Private Practice
|
1862-1890
|
Lincoln
|
|
28. Noah Haynes Swayne
|
U.S. Attorney for Ohio, Ohio Legislator
|
1862-1881
|
Lincoln
|
|
29. Nathan Clifford
|
Maine & U.S. Attorney General
|
1858-1881
|
Buchanan
|
|
30. John Archibald Campbell
|
Alabama Legislator
|
1853-1861
|
Pierce
|
|
31. Benjamin Robbins Curtis
|
Massachusetts Legislator
|
1851-1857
|
Fillmore
|
|
32. John McKinley
|
U.S. Senator
|
1838-1852
|
Van Buren
|
|
33. Roger Brooke Taney
|
Maryland & U.S. Attorney General,
U.S. Treasury Secretary
|
1836-1864
|
Jackson
|
|
34. Henry Baldwin
|
U.S. Congressman
|
1830-1844
|
Jackson
|
|
35. Joseph Story
|
Speaker of Mass. House of Reps.,
U.S. Congressman
|
1812-1845
|
Madison
|
|
36. John Marshall
|
U.S. Secretary of State
|
1801-1835
|
Adams
|
|
37. Bushrod Washington
|
Virginia House of Delegates,
Reporter for Virginia Court of Appeals
|
1799-1829
|
Adams
|
|
38. William Paterson
|
Governor of New Jersey
|
1793-1806
|
Washington
|
|
39. John Jay
|
President of the Continental Congress,
U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs
|
1789-1795
|
Washington
|
|
40. John Rutledge
|
Governor of South Carolina
|
1789-1791, 1795
|
Washington
|
|
* Name corrected
** Headline updated
