The Nine (33 page)

They served together from 1994 to 2005—the longest period without change in the history of the nine-justice Court. Top row, from left: Ginsburg, Souter, Thomas, Breyer. Bottom row: Scalia, Stevens, Rehnquist, O’Connor, Kennedy.

Photo 5

On June 14, 1993, after a tortuous search, President Clinton introduces Ginsburg, his first nominee.

Photo 6

Breyer, Clinton’s second nominee to the Court, in 2006.

Photo 7

Stevens, at a speech in Chicago, in 2005.

Photo 8

Souter in 2003.

Photo 9

Thomas at the Ave Maria School of Law in 2004.

Photo 10

Scalia, with a characteristic gesture, in 2006.

Photo 11

Souter, haggard and drained, leaves the Court on December 12, 2000, the day of
Bush v. Gore
, the case that nearly prompted him to resign.

Photo 12

International travel transformed the outlooks of several justices. O’Connor with Chinese president Jiang Zemin in Beijing in 2002. Inset: Kennedy in the Hague in 2004.

Photo 13

A frail Rehnquist rose from his sickbed to administer the oath of office to President Bush on January 20, 2005.

Photo 14

President Bush introduces Roberts as his nominee to replace O’Connor on July 19, 2005. To the side are Roberts’s wife, Jane, and daughter, Josephine. His son, Jack, is imitating Spider-Man.

Photo 15

On September 29, 2005, at the White House, Stevens swears in Roberts as the seventeenth chief justice of the United States.

Photo 16

Samuel A. Alito Jr. arrives for the hearing with his wife, Martha-Ann.