Supreme Court History Quizzes

This is a Trivia Quiz about Justices Leaving the Bench:

 

1. Believe it or not, this Justice resigned to become Chief Justice of South Carolina.

 

2. This Justice resigned because of ill health, but lived another twenty-five years before his death.

 

3. This Justice left the Court to become United States Senator from Illinois.

 

4. This Justice resigned to accept the Republican nomination for President.

 

5. This Justice resigned to lead a public campaign urging U.S. entry into the League of Nations.

 

6. This Justice left to become Governor of New York.

 

7. This Justice left to devote his time to the celebration of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.

 

8. Upon leaving the High Court, this Justice became Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

 

9. This Justice resigned at the request of the President to become Ambassador to the United Nations.

 

10. This Justice left to become "Assistant President" to Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.

Justices Leaving the Bench Answers:

1. Justice John Rutledge resigned in 1791 to assume his judicial post in South Carolina. In 1795, he was given a recess appointment as Chief Justice of the United States by President Washington, and actually served for six months. Rutledge left the Court a second time when the Senate refused to confirm his appointment as Chief Justice.

 

2. Justice Thomas Johnson resigned in 1793, but lived in retirement until 1819.

 

3. Justice David W. Davis was elected to the Senate in 1876, and he took his seat in the Senate in 1877. In 1881, Davis was elected President pro temp of the Senate. He died in office in 1886.

 

4. Justice Charles Evans Hughes resigned to run against Woodrow Wilson for President of the United States in 1916. After losing the election, he served later as Secretary of State for Presidents Harding and Coolidge. In 1930, he returned to the Court as Chief Justice.

 

5. Justice John H. Clarke resigned in 1922 after six years on the Court. After the defeat of the League of Nations, Clarke lived in retirement in San Diego until his death in 1945.

 

6. Chief Justice John Jay was elected Governor in 1795. In 1800, President John Adams asked Jay to return to the Court as Chief Justice, but Jay declined. Adams appointed John Marshall instead.

 

7. Chief Justice Warren Burger resigned in 1986 to serve as Chairman of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution.

 

8. Justice Owen Roberts resigned from the Court in 1944. He was Dean at the University of Pennsylvania from 1945 to 1951.

 

9. Justice Arthur Goldberg was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

 

10. James F. Byrnes served briefly on the Court in 1941 and 1942. During the War, he essentially managed domestic issues so that Roosevelt could devote his attention to military and foreign affairs. Subsequently, Byrnes was Secretary of State under Truman, and later, Governor of South Carolina.

 

So how did you do?