Justices of the Supreme Court are appointed for life by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Because of the lifetime appointment, the position of Justice is seen as a very powerful one. A Justice can sit on the bench through several presidencies and as the Congress changes hands from one political party to another and back again. The names of most of the Justices are less well known than the presidents, but any student of the American system of government should be familiar with them.

The names of Chief Justices are in bold. If an Associate Justice was promoted to Chief Justice, that person's name will appear twice in the list. These Associates are also marked with an asterisk next to the End Date of their Associate Term. Dates are in MM/DD/YYYY format. The list is presented in Start Date order. Years in service for currently serving Justices are as of August 7, 2010.

The source for this list is a list published on the official Supreme Court website.

Notes:
Total time on the bench for Edward Douglass White: 27 years
Total time on the bench for Harlan Fiske Stone: 21 years
Total time on the bench for William H. Rehnquist, Jr.: 33 years

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