Retired justices of the Supreme Court of the United States

There are currently three living retired justices of the Supreme Court of the United States: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, and David Souter. As retired justices, they may be designated for temporary assignments to sit with several United States Courts of Appeals. Normally, such assignments are made by the Chief Justice; they are analogous to the types of assignments that may be given to judges of lower courts who have selected senior status, although a retired Supreme Court justice never sits as a member of the Supreme Court itself.

Justices sometimes strategically plan their decisions to leave the bench, with personal, institutional, and partisan factors playing a role.^[1][2] The fear of mental decline and death often motivates justices to step down. The desire to maximize the Court's strength and legitimacy through one retirement at a time, when the Court is in recess, and during non-presidential election years suggests a concern for institutional health. Finally, many justices seek to depart under favorable presidents and Senates to ensure that a like-minded successor will be appointed.^{[citation needed]}

Name	Born	Appt. by	Retired under	Conf. vote	Age at appt.	First day	Date of retirement
John Paul Stevens	01920-04-20 April 20, 1920 (age &1000000000000009100000091) in Chicago, Illinois	Gerald Ford	Barack Obama	98–0	55	December 19, 1975	June 29, 2010
Sandra Day O'Connor	01930-03-26 March 26, 1930 (age &1000000000000008100000081) in El Paso, Texas	Ronald Reagan	George W. Bush	99–0	51	September 25, 1981	January 31, 2006
David Souter	01939-09-17 September 17, 1939 (age &1000000000000007200000072) in Melrose, Massachusetts	George H. W. Bush	Barack Obama	90–9	51	01990-10-09 October 9, 1990	June 29, 2009

References

1. ^ David N. Atkinson, Leaving the Bench (University Press of Kansas 1999) ISBN 0-7006-0946-6
2. ^ Greenhouse, Linda (2010-09-09). "An Invisible Chief Justice". The New York Times. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/an-invisible-chief-justice/. Retrieved 2010-09-09. "Had [O'Connor] anticipated that the chief justice would not serve out the next Supreme Court term, she told me after his death, she would have delayed her own retirement for a year rather than burden the court with two simultaneous vacancies. [...] Her reason for leaving was that her husband, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, needed her care at home."