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Answer
All 112 past and present Supreme Court Justices have held law degrees or have been admitted to the bar at some point before being appointed the bench. Those who served in the early days of the Court would have been said to "read law" under the tutelage of another lawyer before being admitted to the local bar so may not have held a law degree, because there were few law schools back then, and it was not necessary to hold a degree in order to be admitted to the bar.
Not all supreme court justices had been judges, though. Notable examples are John Marshall, William Rehnquist, and Earl Warren.
Answer
Although not required by the Constitution, all 112 members of the US Supreme Court have been lawyers, although not all attended or graduated law school. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the United States had few law schools, so a person who wanted to become a lawyer would read about the law and then apprentice under a practicing attorney.
Levi Woodbury (1845-1851) was the first justice to graduate law school (Litchfield Law School, now defunct).
Stanley Forman Reed (1938-1957) was the last justice to serve without a law degree.
Today, candidates for the US Supreme Court are usually chosen from among those who attended the nation's top law schools, such as Harvard and Yale.
For more information, see Related Questions, below.
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CoachWhile all the Supreme Court Justices were lawyers, and all were admitted to their state bar, many lacked law school degrees. Prior to the 20th-century, men interested in practicing law either achieved an undergraduate college degree, then read law and apprenticed under practicing lawyers, or bypassed college altogether and went directly into an apprenticeship. Still others attended law school for a time, but did not graduate.
In total, 38 of 110 Justices were appointed despite having no law degree; 72 achieved at least a Juris Doctorate, and a few have achieved Master's degrees (which is higher than a J.D.). The current trend is toward appointing judges who have law degrees from the nation's best law schools. The schools with the most alumni who joined the Supreme Court are Harvard and Yale.
James F. Byrnes (1941-1942) never attended high school, college, or law school.
Stanley Forman Reed (1938-1957) was the last person to serve without a law degree (although he did attend law school for awhile).
Levi Woodbury (1845-1851) was the first justice to graduate law school (Litchfield Law School, now defunct).
The justices without degrees are classified by level of educational attainment.
Undergraduate Degree and Some Law School
# Robert H. Jackson # Benjamin Cardozo # William R. Day # John Marshall # William Henry Moody # Henry Baldwin # William Johnson # John Blair # John Rutledge # Stanley Forman Reed Undergraduate Degree with Apprenticeship and Reading
# John Jay # William Cushing # Joseph McKenna # Mahlon Pitney # James Wilson # Samuel Nelson # Philip Pendleton Barbour # Roger B. Taney # James Moore Wayne # Smith Thompson # Joseph Story # Henry Brockholst Livingston # Alfred Moore # Burshrod Washington # Oliver Elsworth # John Clark # William Paters No Undergraduate Degree, or Unverified Degree, Read and Apprenticed
# John McKinley # John Catron # John McClean # Peter Vivian Daniel # Robert Trimble # Gabriel Duvall # Thomas Todd # James Iredell # James F. Brynes # Samuel Chase # Thomas Johnson
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How many law clerks are the US Supreme Court justices allowed to hire?
Active justices may hire four law clerks each; retired justices are entitled to one law clerk.
What do you think of Supreme Court Justices having political party affiliations?
Supreme Court Justices do not necessarily have parties because they do not run for a political seat. The criteria for a supreme court justice has to be someone who is familiar with the law such as a former lawyer. If Supreme Court justices ran on a political platform that could complicate the position they hold because many political parties have money or a platform they run on.
Which of the following is not a requirement for becoming a Supreme Court justice?
have a law degree!!! apexx (:
How many justices are on the Supreme Court of Texas?
The State of Texas has two courts of last resort (state supreme courts): The Supreme Court of Texas is the highest appellate court for juvenile and civil cases; The Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest appellate court for criminal cases. Although only one is called the "Supreme Court" they function at the same appellate level.
What kind of education does a US Supreme Court justice need?
As far as the Constitution is concerned, there are no educational requirements for Supreme Court justices (including the Chief Justice). In the real world, however, the current Supreme Court justices have at least a Bachelor's degree and three years of law school, culminating in a J.D. degree. That works out to seven years of post-secondary education, minimum. There are also opportunities for post-graduate work in law, leading to an LLM or LLB, which is a legal master's degree beyond the standard Juris Doctor. Typical post-secondary education includes four years of undergraduate college, plus three years of law school (or seven years of education after high school). An LLM or LLB degree adds an additional year of study.
