What US Supreme Court justices were not judges prior to being appointed to the Court?

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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.

First answer by Marcia1061. Last edit by Marcia1061. Contributor trust: 819 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 14 [recommend question].