Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is the highest court of the United States and the only one specifically created
by the Constitution. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed by any other court. The
Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in only two kinds of cases: those involving foreign dignitaries
and those in which a state is a party. All other cases reach the Court on appeal from a lower court.
Most of the cases involve interpretation of the law or of the intent of Congress in passing a piece of
legislation. A significant amount of the work of the Supreme Court , however, consists of determining
whether legislative or executive acts conform to the Constitution.
The Supreme Court of the United States consists of nine justices appointed for life by the President
with the advice and consent of the Senate. One justice is appointed as the Chief Justice and has
additional administrative duties related both to the Supreme Court and to the entire federal court
system. The Supreme Court meets on the first Monday of October each year and usually continues
in session through June. The Supreme Court receives and disposes of about 5,000 cases each year,
most by a brief decision that the subject matter is either not proper or not of sufficient importance to
warrant review by the
full court. Cases are heard en banc, which means by all the justices sitting together in open court.
As of January 1, 2004 the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court earns an annual salary of $201,600 Associate Justices earn $193,000.
Biographies  of the current members of the court are available on the court's website.
The Supreme Court
Chief Justice of the United States
John Roberts
Associate Justices
John Paul Stevens
Antonin Scalia
Anthony M. Kennedy
David H. Souter
Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen G. Breyer
Samuel Alito Jr.
26 September 2006 U.S. Supreme Court To Review Wide Range of Cases The U.S. Supreme Court, which opens its 2006-2007 term on October 2, will hear a variety of immigration, business, environmental, criminal and civil rights cases over the next several months.
Supreme Court Decisions
Each year the Supreme Court decides about 150 cases of great national importance and interest. The Court's website has information on the issuance and availabiity of the opinions delivered.
The FedWorld/FLITE Supreme Court Decisions Home Page carries a file of the full text of over 7000 Supreme Court opinions dating from 1937 through 1975, from volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports.Supreme Court Decisions. Decisions are available as ASCII text files searchable by case name (i.e. Roe v. Wade) or keyword.
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Supreme Court