Please help us choose and improve next week's featured profiles: US Supreme Court Justices

+16 votes
600 views

This coming week, the featured example profiles will be US Supreme Court Justices.

We're searching for the best and most interesting profiles of US Supreme Court Justices to feature alongside the first US Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Jay, in the Connection Finder. Could you help?

This category has many to choose from, including a few we're getting started on:

Can you help with these profiles, or expand their families? Adding relatives in any direction helps with connections. Every missing relative you add will make our connections to them closer.

Who else should we feature? Do they need a profile? Is the category up-to-date?

All profiles we feature need a good biography and a connection to the big tree. We also want each one to have an image, and the image needs to have proper source attribution explaining why it's in the public domain or why we have the right to display it.

We can't feature every justice (we only have room for eight per week), but if we don't feature a profile you work on, we may use it sometime in the future. And, of course, all contributions help improve our shared tree.

We'll make a final decision on which ones to feature early next week.

Please reply here with what you're working on so that we don't duplicate our efforts. Thank you!

WikiTree profile: John Jay
in The Tree House by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (733k points)
edited by Abby Glann
This Free Space page also has all the Chief Justices listed:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Chief_Justics_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
Is there a Free Space page for the US Supreme Court Associate Justices?
Why is Stephen Breyer, Sandra Day O'Connor, Brett Kavanaugh and David Souter not listed in the Category list for Associate Justices?
Breyer, Kavanaugh, and Souter are living people whose profiles (if any exist) would be Unlisted.

Ellen, I know they are living and would be listed as unlisted, but they would show up in the category listing with the other six living and there would be “consistency” in listing them too.

The Associate Justices are probably easiest to find in the category:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Associate_Justices_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_US

And sorry - that didn't answer the question. I don't believe there is a Free Space page on the Associate Justices...
As it relates to living persons, since the new privacy regulations, it has been very challenging to work on profiles and families of the living, since we are not allowed to discuss them in G2G. It's not against the rules to create their profiles, but it is against the rules to discuss research into their profiles and to discuss their immediate family on the forum.

Mentioning that they are not in the category is probably in that gray area, as it might lead to discussions we shouldn't be having, which could be part of why people get hesitant to respond to questions regarding the living.

7 Answers

+12 votes
The longest serving justice (36 yrs 211 days) was William O. Douglas:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Douglas-8847

The shortest serving (1 year, 17 days) was John Rutledge:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rutledge-512
by Lucy Selvaggio-Diaz G2G6 Pilot (828k points)
I've done work on Douglas' third wife and his son (by his first wife).
+9 votes

Thinking that it would be good to be able to include some more of the justices who did not have colonial ancestry or a blueblood background, I did some work on Abe Fortas. He was already connected to the tree through his wife. I have added  to his biography, added a photo, and started profiles for his parents and one of his siblings.

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+7 votes
Working on William O. Douglas, who has a Vermont connection.  Adding child of Orville Fisk, his grandfather who served in the Civil War for Vermont.
by Carolyn Adams G2G6 Mach 9 (92.5k points)
+6 votes

I did some work connecting Antonin Scalia to the main tree. Now that he is connected to the main tree, his connections should be in the Connection Finder tomorrow.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Scalia-16

by Nicolas LaPointe G2G6 Mach 1 (10.1k points)
+5 votes

I have a couple suggestions:

1.) Chief Justice John Marshall: The Supreme Court gained considerable power and prestige during his lengthy tenure as Chief Justice (1801-1835).  It was during his time as Chief Justice that the concept of judicial review was enshrined in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

2.) Associate Justice Louis Brandeis: Justice Brandeis was the first Justice of Jewish background to sit on the US Supreme Court, serving from 1916-1939.  He was highly influential in the legal profession even before he joined the Court, having pioneered the Brandeis brief that included social science research in addition to traditional legal citations.  Brandeis University is named in his honor.

by Greg Lavoie G2G6 Pilot (371k points)

3.) Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson: In addition to his service as Associate Justice, he served as US Solicitor General, US Attorney General, and Chief US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.

4.) Associate Justice Harry Blackmun: Best known for authoring the Supreme Court's majority opinion in Roe v. Wade.

+4 votes
Justice Potter Stewart is already connected. He was important in the Watergate era and the ruling on the Nixon tapes.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stewart-27585
by Mark Burch G2G6 Pilot (218k points)
+4 votes
Continuing work on the ancestors of William O. Douglas, particularly his mother's side, which has connection to Vermont and Massachusetts.
by Carolyn Adams G2G6 Mach 9 (92.5k points)

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