List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office

A total of 115 people have served on the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial body in the United States, since it was established in 1789. Supreme Court justices have life tenure, and so they serve until they die, resign, retire, or are impeached and removed from office. For the 106 non-incumbent justices, the average length of service was 6,203 days (16 years, 359 days).[1][upper-alpha 1] Their length of service ranges from William O. Douglas's 13,358 days (36 years, 209 days) on the Court to the 163-day tenure of Thomas Johnson. Among the current members of the Court, Clarence Thomas's tenure of 10,702 days (29 years, 109 days)[upper-alpha 2] is the longest, while Amy Coney Barrett's 105 days[upper-alpha 2] is the shortest.

The table below ranks all United States Supreme Court Justices by time in office.[upper-alpha 3] For five individuals confirmed for associate justice, and later served as chief justice —Charles Evans Hughes, William Rehnquist, John Rutledge, Harlan F. Stone, and Edward Douglass White—their cumulative length of service on the Court is measured. The basis of the ranking is the difference between dates; if counted by number of calendar days all the figures would be one greater, with the exception of Charles Evans Hughes and John Rutledge, who would receive two days, as each served on the Court twice (their service as associate justice and as chief justice was separated by a period of years off the Court). The start date given for each justice is the day they took the prescribed oath of office, with the end date being the date of the justice's death, resignation, or retirement. A highlighted row indicates a justice currently serving on the Court.

Justices by time in office

Longest Supreme Court tenure
William O. Douglas 13,358 days (1939–1975)	Stephen Johnson Field 12,614 days (1863–1897)
Shortest Supreme Court tenure[upper-alpha 4]
James F. Byrnes 452 days (1941–1942)	Thomas Johnson 163 days (1792–1793)

Rank	Justice	Length in days	Start date[3]	End date[3]
1	William O. Douglas	13,358	April 17, 1939	November 12, 1975
2	Stephen Johnson Field	12,614	May 20, 1863	December 1, 1897
3	John Paul Stevens	12,611	December 19, 1975	June 29, 2010
4	John Marshall   (CJ)	12,570	February 4, 1801	July 6, 1835
5	Hugo Black	12,447	August 19, 1937	September 17, 1971
6	John Marshall Harlan	12,360	December 10, 1877	October 14, 1911
7	William J. Brennan Jr.	12,330	October 16, 1956	July 20, 1990
8	William Rehnquist   (CJ)	12,293[upper-alpha 5]	January 7, 1972 September 26, 1986	September 26, 1986 September 3, 2005
9	Joseph Story	12,273	February 3, 1812	September 10, 1845
10	James Moore Wayne	11,860	January 14, 1835	July 5, 1867
11	John McLean	11,406	January 11, 1830	April 4, 1861
12	Byron White	11,396	April 16, 1962	June 28, 1993
13	Bushrod Washington	11,339	November 9, 1798	November 26, 1829
14	Anthony Kennedy	11,121	February 18, 1988	July 31, 2018
15	William Johnson	11,046	May 7, 1804	August 4, 1834
16	Antonin Scalia	10,732	September 26, 1986	February 13, 2016
17	Clarence Thomas	10,702[upper-alpha 2]	October 23, 1991	Incumbent
18	Oliver Wendell Holmes	10,627	December 8, 1902	January 12, 1932
19	Roger B. Taney   (CJ)	10,425	March 28, 1836	October 12, 1864
20	Samuel Freeman Miller	10,311	July 21, 1862	October 13, 1890
21	John Catron	10,256	May 1, 1837	May 30, 1865
22	Samuel Nelson	10,136	February 27, 1845	November 28, 1872
23	Edward Douglass White   (CJ)	9,929[upper-alpha 6]	March 12, 1894 December 19, 1910	December 19, 1910 May 19, 1921
24	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	9,901	August 10, 1993	September 18, 2020
25	Joseph McKenna	9,840	January 26, 1898	January 5, 1925
26	Stephen Breyer	9,687[upper-alpha 2]	August 3, 1994	Incumbent
27	Willis Van Devanter	9,647	January 3, 1911	June 2, 1937
28	James Clark McReynolds	9,608	October 12, 1914	January 31, 1941
29	Sandra Day O'Connor	8,894	September 25, 1981	January 31, 2006
30	Harry Blackmun	8,821	June 9, 1970	August 3, 1994
31	Thurgood Marshall	8,765	October 2, 1967	October 1, 1991
32	Felix Frankfurter	8,611	January 30, 1939	August 28, 1962
33	Nathan Clifford	8,586	January 21, 1858	July 25, 1881
34	Robert Cooper Grier	8,575	August 10, 1846	January 31, 1870
35	Gabriel Duvall	8,453	November 23, 1811	January 14, 1835
36	Potter Stewart	8,298	October 14, 1958	July 3, 1981
37	Louis Brandeis	8,288	June 5, 1916	February 13, 1939
38	Joseph P. Bradley	7,975	March 23, 1870	January 22, 1892
39	Melville Fuller   (CJ)	7,938	October 8, 1888	July 4, 1910
40	Harlan F. Stone   (CJ)	7,721[upper-alpha 7]	March 2, 1925 July 3, 1941	July 2, 1941 April 22, 1946
41	Horace Gray	7,553	January 9, 1882	September 15, 1902
42	William Cushing	7,527	February 2, 1790	September 13, 1810
43	Smith Thompson	7,413	September 1, 1823	December 18, 1843
44	David Josiah Brewer	7,385	January 6, 1890	March 28, 1910
45	William R. Day	7,196	March 2, 1903	November 13, 1922
46	Stanley Forman Reed	6,965	January 31, 1938	February 25, 1957
47	Noah Haynes Swayne	6,937	January 27, 1862	January 24, 1881
48	Thomas Todd	6,854	May 4, 1807	February 7, 1826
49	David Souter	6,838	October 9, 1990	June 29, 2009
50	Peter Vivian Daniel	6,716	January 10, 1842	May 31, 1860
51	Tom C. Clark	6,501	August 24, 1949	June 12, 1967
52	Warren E. Burger   (CJ)	6,304	June 23, 1969	September 26, 1986
53	Charles Evans Hughes   (CJ)	6,214[upper-alpha 8]	October 10, 1910 February 24, 1930	June 10, 1916 June 30, 1941
54	Pierce Butler	6,162	January 2, 1923	November 16, 1939
55	John Marshall Harlan II	6,023	March 28, 1955	September 23, 1971
56	Henry Brockholst Livingston	5,901	January 20, 1807	March 18, 1823
57	Earl Warren   (CJ)	5,740	October 5, 1953	June 23, 1969
58	Lewis Franklin Powell	5,649	January 7, 1972	June 26, 1987
59	Henry Billings Brown	5,621	January 5, 1891	May 28, 1906
60	Samuel Chase	5,613	February 4, 1796	June 19, 1811
61	John Roberts   (CJ)	5,612[upper-alpha 2]	September 29, 2005	Incumbent
62	George Sutherland	5,586	October 2, 1922	January 17, 1938
63	Owen Roberts	5,538	June 2, 1930	July 31, 1945
64	Samuel Alito	5,488[upper-alpha 2]	January 31, 2006	Incumbent
65	John McKinley	5,305	January 9, 1838	July 19, 1852
66	Henry Baldwin	5,207	January 18, 1830	April 21, 1844
67	David Davis	5,198	December 10, 1862	March 4, 1877
68	Morrison Waite   (CJ)	5,133	March 4, 1874	March 23, 1888
69	Rufus W. Peckham	5,039	January 6, 1896	October 24, 1909
70	William Paterson	4,929	March 11, 1793	September 9, 1806
71	Robert H. Jackson	4,838	July 11, 1941	October 9, 1954
72	Harold Hitz Burton	4,760	October 1, 1945	October 13, 1958
73	Sonia Sotomayor	4,203[upper-alpha 2]	August 8, 2009	Incumbent
74	Samuel Blatchford	4,113	April 3, 1882	July 7, 1893
75	Mahlon Pitney	3,940	March 18, 1912	December 31, 1922
76	William Strong	3,928	March 14, 1870	December 14, 1880
77	Elena Kagan	3,839[upper-alpha 2]	August 7, 2010	Incumbent
78	George Shiras Jr.	3,787	October 10, 1892	February 23, 1903
79	Frank Murphy	3,452	February 5, 1940	July 19, 1949
80	James Iredell	3,448	May 12, 1790	October 20, 1799
81	Ward Hunt	3,305	January 9, 1873	January 27, 1882
82	James Wilson	3,242	October 5, 1789	August 21, 1798
83	William Howard Taft   (CJ)	3,129	July 11, 1921	February 3, 1930
84	Salmon P. Chase   (CJ)	3,065	December 15, 1864	May 7, 1873
85	John Archibald Campbell	2,941	April 11, 1853	April 30, 1861
86	Stanley Matthews	2,866	May 17, 1881	March 22, 1889
87	Fred M. Vinson   (CJ)	2,633	June 24, 1946	September 8, 1953
88	Edward Terry Sanford	2,574	February 19, 1923	March 8, 1930
89	Sherman Minton	2,560	October 12, 1949	October 15, 1956
90	Wiley Blount Rutledge	2,399	February 15, 1943	September 10, 1949
91	William Burnham Woods	2,320	January 5, 1881	May 14, 1887
92	Benjamin N. Cardozo	2,308	March 14, 1932	July 9, 1938
93	Benjamin Robbins Curtis	2,182	October 10, 1851	September 30, 1857
94	Levi Woodbury	2,172	September 23, 1845	September 4, 1851
95	John Hessin Clarke	2,170	October 9, 1916	September 18, 1922
96	John Blair	2,091	February 2, 1790	October 25, 1795
97	John Jay   (CJ)	2,079	October 19, 1789	June 29, 1795
98 (tie)	Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar	1,832	January 18, 1888	January 23, 1893
	Charles Evans Whittaker	1,832	March 25, 1957	March 31, 1962
100	Joseph Rucker Lamar	1,825	January 3, 1911	January 2, 1916
101	Philip Pendleton Barbour	1,750	May 12, 1836	February 25, 1841
102	Oliver Ellsworth   (CJ)	1,742	March 8, 1796	December 15, 1800
103	Horace Harmon Lurton	1,651	January 3, 1910	July 12, 1914
104	William Henry Moody	1,434	December 17, 1906	November 20, 1910
105	Neil Gorsuch	1,401[upper-alpha 2]	April 10, 2017	Incumbent
106	Alfred Moore	1,375	April 21, 1800	January 26, 1804
107	Abe Fortas	1,318	October 4, 1965	May 14, 1969
108	Arthur Goldberg	1,028	October 1, 1962	July 25, 1965
109	Howell Edmunds Jackson	887	March 4, 1893	August 8, 1895
110	Brett Kavanaugh	857[upper-alpha 2]	October 6, 2018	Incumbent
111	Robert Trimble	801	June 16, 1826	August 25, 1828
112	John Rutledge   (CJ)	521[upper-alpha 9]	February 15, 1790 August 12, 1795	March 5, 1791 December 28, 1795
113	James F. Byrnes	452	July 8, 1941	October 3, 1942
114	Thomas Johnson	163	August 6, 1792	January 16, 1793
115	Amy Coney Barrett	105[upper-alpha 2]	October 27, 2020	Incumbent

Notes

1. Average tenure in office has increased significantly over the past half-century. In 1970, the average tenure in office (for the 89 justices who had left the Court prior to 1970) was about fifteen years.[2]
2. As of February 9, 2021
3. A nominee who was confirmed by the United States Senate but declined to serve, such as Robert H. Harrison, or who died before taking the necessary steps toward becoming a member of the Court, such as Edwin Stanton, is not considered to have served as a justice, and thus is not included on this list.[3]
4. Excludes Amy Coney Barrett, who is currently serving.
5. Length of tenure includes 5,376 days' service as associate justice and 6,917 days as chief justice.
6. Length of tenure includes 6,125 days' service as associate justice and 3,804 days as chief justice.
7. Length of tenure includes 5,966 days' service as associate justice and 1,754 days as chief justice.
8. Length of tenure includes 2,070 days' service as associate justice and 4,144 days as chief justice.
9. Length of tenure includes 383 days service as associate justice and 138 days as chief justice.

See also

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of law schools attended by United States Supreme Court justices
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by seat
• List of United States federal judges by longevity of service

References

1. Wellford, Rachel (July 9, 2018). "More than 2 centuries of Supreme Court justices, in 18 numbers". PBS NewsHour. Arlington County, Virginia: NewsHour Productions (WETA-TV). Retrieved August 3, 2018.
2. Cramton, Roger C. (Fall 2007). "Reforming the Supreme Court". California Law Review. 95: 1313–1334 (at p.1316). Retrieved August 3, 2018 – via Cornell Law Faculty Publications.
3. "Justices 1789 to Present". Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved June 23, 2018.