US Supreme Court Facts

Recently a presidential contender said he would appoint Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. Obama is not a lawyer and has never been a judge, so I looked up qualifications required.
There are no explicit requirements in the U.S. Constitution for a person to be nominated to become a Supreme Court justice. No age, education, law degree, job experience, or citizenship rules exist.

To date, six justices have been foreign born; the most recent. The youngest associate justice ever appointed was Joseph Story, who was 32 years old when he joined the bench in 1811. Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who served from 1902 to 1932, retired at age 90, making him the oldest person ever to sit on the court. One thing every justice who has served shares in common is that all were lawyers (although not required) prior to joining the court. During the 18th and 19th centuries, before attending law school was standard practice, many future justices got their legal training by studying under a mentor.


James Byrnes, who served on the court from 1941 to 1942, was the last justice who did not attend law school or graduate from high school. He worked as a law clerk and later passed the bar exam. Justices are appointed for life but can be impeached.

Incidentally, during recent years, the court has received some 10,000 annual requests to review cases, but hears only about 80.

Wordology, Justiciable, Moot, and Unripe

Justiciability is one of several criteria that the United States Supreme Court use to make a judgment. In order for an issue to be justiciable (liable to be tried in court) by a United States federal court, all of the following conditions must be met.
The parties must not be seeking an advisory opinion.

There must be an actual controversy between the parties, meaning that the parties cannot agree to a lawsuit where all parties seek the same particular judgment from the court (known as a friendly suit); the parties must each be seeking a different outcome.

The question must be neither unripe nor moot.
   An unripe question is one for which there is not yet at least a threatened injury to the plaintiff, or where all available judicial alternatives have not been exhausted.
   A moot question is one for which the potential for an injury to occur has ceased to exist, or where the injury has been removed.

Random Interesting Facts

There are over two hundred corpses on Mt. Everest and some are used as way markers for climbers.

The tallness of a mountain refers to its length from base to summit. The height refers to the length from sea level to summit. Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, but it is not the tallest. At 33,465 ft (10,200 m) Mauna Kea in Hawaii is taller than Everest, which is only 29,029 ft (8,848 m). However, almost two thirds of Mauna Kea is underwater.

The US Supreme Court's basketball court is on the fifth floor of the United States Supreme Court Building, higher than the second floor courtroom, so it has been dubbed the highest court in the land.

Almost twenty five percent of Los Angeles is covered by automobiles and there are also more cars than people in Los Angeles.

John D. Rockefeller's wealth, when adjusted for inflation was ten times greater than Bill Gates.

There are over seventy various spacecrafts on the Moon, as well as a few flags, some golf balls, some TV cameras, empty packages and, human waste containers. All total over 400,000 pounds.

Free Mug Shots

There are over a hundred web sites that publish mug shots and request payment to take them off. These are legal, but can be very bad for someones reputation and job prospects. The sites get away with their actions because the United States Supreme Court has ruled that mug shots are public records and many law enforcement agencies regularly publish them online. Mug shots are taken at time of booking and many people are exonerated or have their charges dropped.

Mug shots have been online for years, but now there are many more sites. They get most of their images from sheriffs’ and other law enforcement web sites. Some sites offer a courtesy removal for people who have been exonerated or never charged, to get their image removed for free. Others charge hundreds of dollars for removal. Unfortunate for the people who land on many sites. It could cost them thousands to have their mug shots removed.

Lately PayPal and some credit card companies have been dropping known mug shot sites as customers, making it more difficult for them to get paid. This is good for their corporate consciences, but makes it even more difficult to get mug shots removed from the web.