What current US Supreme Court Justices were never judges?

Answer 1

A total of 41 justices (10 Chief Justices and 31 Associate Justices) of the 112 seated (36.6%) had no judicial experience before joining the US Supreme Court.

The following list includes only US Supreme Court justices who were NEVER judges prior to being nominated to the US Supreme Court. The occupation listed is the last position held before nomination.

Please note that most justices held other, often multiple, positions in politics earlier in their careers. Many of the justices whose occupation at nomination is listed as "lawyer" had temporarily returned to private practice because the opposing party was in office and there were no government opportunities available to them until the administration changed.

Chief Justices

John Jay..........................(1789 - 1798)....Washington.............Envoy, Ambassador

John Marshall...................(1801 - 1835)....Adams....................Secretary of State

Roger Taney.....................(1836 - 1864)....Jackson..................Secretary of the Treasury

Salmon Chase..................(1864 - 1873)....Lincoln....................Secretary of the Treasury

Morrison Waite.................(1873 - 1888)....Grant......................Pres, OH Constitutional Convention

Melville Fuller...................(1888 - 1910).....Cleveland...............Lawyer

Charles Hughes................(1930 - 1941).....Hoover...................US delegate, Perm Court of Arbitration (The Hague)

Harlan Stone....................(1941 - 1946).....Roosevelt, F...........Associate Justice, US Supreme Court

Earl Warren......................(1953 - 1969)....Eisenhower.............Governor, California

William H. Rehnquist.........(1986 - 2005)....Reagan..................Associate Justice, US Supreme Court

Associate Justices

James Wilson...................(1789 - 1798)....Washington............Member, Continental Congress

Bushrod Washington.........(1799 - 1829).....Adams..................Lawyer

Joseph Story....................(1812 - 1845).....Madison................Speaker, MA Lower House

Henry Baldwin..................(1830 - 1844).....Jackson................Lawyer

John McKinley..................(1838 - 1852).....Van Buren.............House of Representatives

Benjamin Curtis...............(1851 - 1857)......Fillmore...............MA State Legislature

John Campbell.................(1853 - 1861)......Pierce..................Lawyer

Nathan Clifford.................(1858 - 1881).....Buchanan.............Lawyer

Noah Swayne...................(1862 - 1881).....Lincoln.................Lawyer

Samuel Miller...................(1862 - 1890)......Lincoln.................Lawyer

Joseph Bradley.................(1870 - 1892)......Grant..................Lawyer

Lucius Lamar....................(1888 - 1893).....Cleveland.............Secretary of the Interior

George Shiras, Jr..............(1892 - 1903)......Harrison..............Lawyer

William Henry Moody.........(1906 - 1910).....Roosevelt, T..........US Attorney General

James McReynolds............(1914 - 1941).....Wilson..................US Attorney General

Louis Brandeis..................(1916 - 1939).....Wilson.................Lawyer

George Sutherland............(1922 - 1938).....Harding...............US Consul at The Hague

Pierce Butler.....................(1923 - 1939).....Harding...............Regent, University of Minnesota

Owen Roberts...................(1930 - 1945).....Hoover.................Special US Attorney

Stanley Forman Reed.........(1938 - 1945).....Roosevelt, F.........Solicitor General

Felix Frankfurter................(1939 - 1962).....Roosevelt, F..........Law Professor, Harvard

William O. Douglas............(1939 - 1974).....Roosevelt, F..........Chairman of SEC

James Francis Byrnes.........(1941 - 1942).....Roosevelt, F..........Senator

Robert H. Jackson.............(1941 - 1954).....Roosevelt, F..........US Attorney General

Harold Hitz Burton.............(1945 - 1958).....Truman................Senator

Tom C. Clark.....................(1949 - 1967).....Truman................US Attorney General

Byron White......................(1962 - 1993).....Kennedy..............Deputy Attorney General

Arthur J. Goldberg.............(1962 - 1965).....Kennedy...............Secretary of Labor

Abe Fortas........................(1965 - 1969).....Johnson...............Lawyer

Lewis F. Powell..................(1972 - 1987)......Nixon..................Lawyer

Elena Kagan......................(2010 - Pres)......Obama.................US Solicitor General

All of the members of the current 2010 Court staff had judicial experience on the US Courts of Appeals Circuit Courts prior to being elevated to the US Supreme Court.

For more information, see Related Questions, below.

Answer 2

All of the members of the current Court, with the exception of the 112th Justice, Elena Kagan, had judicial experience on the US Courts of Appeals Circuit Courts prior to being elevated to the US Supreme Court.

For more information, see Related Questions, below.

Answer 3

There are no set rules for qualification. Although every past justice has been a lawyer, 41 of the 109 justices had no prior judicial experience.

Summary from here.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1007/p01s03-usju.html

Answer 4

Taft Warren kagan