The official title of the Chief Justice has varied in legislation as well as in the commissions issued to the different Justices. The first seven Chief Justices were commissioned under the title of "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States," but since that time the Chief Justices have been commissioned as "Chief Justice of the United States." The judges of the Supreme Court, as well as all the Federal judges, are nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and commissioned by the President. In the nomination of the judges, the President is left by the Constitution to his own dis cretion, as section 2 of Article II. of the Constitution provides that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for." The Constitution does not prescribe the qualifications for holding a judicial office. In the confirmation or rejection of the President's nominee, the Senate has sole discretion. Under the provisions of the Constitution in issuing the commission, however, the President exercises simply a ministerial power.
The term of the judges is during good behaviour, so that the term is for life unless a judge shall resign or by conviction on impeachment be expelled from office, as provided in section 4, Article II., of the Constitution. Only one Justice of the Supreme Court has been impeached—Samuel Chase, who was acquitted in 18o5.
The Court consists (1936) of a Chief Justice and eight Asso ciate Justices. From its number of five in the original Judiciary Act of 2789, it had been increased to six in 1807, to eight in 1837, and to nine in 1863. An Act of 1866 would have reduced
the Associate Justices to six, but before sufficient vacancies had occurred thus to reduce the Court, the Act of 1869 was passed, which reconstituted the Court with a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, as it remains at present.
While the existence of the Court has generally been regarded as necessary, it has been subject to much criticism especially in 1857 when the Court decided in the Dred Scott case that Congress had no power to abolish slavery in territories acquired of ter the formation of the national government ; and in 1937 when Presi dent Roosevelt proposed to establish an age limit for service after which younger justices would be appointed whether or not the incumbents retired. This proposal failed of passage in the Senate.
In spite of all attack, the Court has generally held the confi dence of the people. Its decisions have influenced the develop ment of the nation. It has dealt with problems which were in a large sense political and which involved the true relation between the States and the central Government.
As long as this form of Government endures, these will recur and will continue to impose upon the Supreme Court the ulti mate decision.
Warren, The Supreme Court of the United States, 4 vols. (1922) ; C. E. Hughes, The Supreme Court of the United States (1928) ; Felix Frankfurter and James M. Landis, The Business of the Supreme Court (1928) ; Charles Warren, The Supreme Court and Sovereign States (1924) ; Charles K. Burdick, The Law of the American Constitution (1922) ; Albert J. Beveridge, The Life of John Marshall, 4 vols. (1919). (W. J. DoN.)