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Does a US Supreme Court justice have to be a lawyer?

In: US Constitution, US Government, US Supreme Court [Edit categories]

Answer:

The technical answer is no, there are no Constitutional or legislative qualifications for US Supreme Court justices.

All 112 past and present Supreme Court justices have been lawyers, although those who served in the early days of the Court learned the law by reading and apprenticing with more experienced attorneys because there were few law schools back then.

There have been some lawyers who were never judges appointed, most famously, Earl Warren. Eisenhower appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1953 to thank him for his support in CA during the Republican primaries. Warren was an ex-state Attorney General and an extremely popular governor of CA, but he had never been a judge. He went on to become one of the most active Chief Justices ever, greatly expanding legal protections, especially for minorities (e.g. Brown v. Board of Education, 1954) and criminal defendants (Miranda v. Arizona, 1966).

First answer by Mitchwhite. Last edit by Mitchwhite. Contributor trust: 5 [recommend contributor ]. Question popularity: 109 [recommend question].

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