Supreme Court Database

Search

Natural Court

Natural Court
Variable Name
Spaeth Name
Normalizations
naturalCourt
NATCT
116 [ view ]

Although most judicial research is chronologically organized by the term of the Court or by chief justice, many users employ “natural courts” as their analytical frame of reference.

A natural court is a period during which no personnel change occurs. Scholars have subdivided them into “strong” and “weak” natural courts, but no convention exists as to the dates on which they begin and end. Options include 1) date of confirmation, 2) date of seating, 3) cases decided after seating, and 4) cases argued and decided after seating. A strong natural court is delineated by the addition of a new justice or the departure of an incumbent. A weak natural court, by comparison, is any group of sitting justices even if lengthy vacancies occurred.

The values below divide the Courts into strong natural courts, each of which begins when the Reports first specify that the new justice is present but not necessarily participating in the reported case. Similarly, a natural court ends on the date when the Reports state that an incumbent justice has died, retired, or resigned. The courts are numbered consecutively by chief justice as the code at the left-hand margin indicates.

Note, especially, that the Court was without a chief justice during the 1836 term. This was the period between Marshall’s death and Taney’s confirmation.

For more on delineating natural courts, see See Edward V. Heck, “Justice Brennan and the Heyday of Warren Court Liberalism,” 20 Santa Clara Law Review 841 (1980) 842-843 and “Changing Voting Patterns in the Burger Court: The Impact of Personnel Change,” 17 San Diego Law Review 1021 (1980) 1038; Harold J. Spaeth and Michael F. Altfeld, “Measuring Power on the Supreme Court: An Alternative to the Power Index,” 26 Jurimetrics 48 (1985) 55.

Values:

101Jay 1October 05, 1789–May 11, 1790
102Jay 2May 12, 1790–August 05, 1792
103Jay 3August 06, 1792–March 10, 1793
104Jay 4March 11, 1793–August 11, 1795
201Rutledge 1August 12, 1795–December 15, 1795
202No Chief (Post-Rutledge)February 04, 1796–March 07, 1796
301Ellsworth 1March 08, 1796–November 08, 1798
302Ellsworth 2November 09, 1798–April 20, 1800
303Ellsworth 3April 21, 1800–February 03, 1801
401Marshall 1February 04, 1801–May 06, 1804
402Marshall 2May 07, 1804–January 19, 1807
403Marshall 3January 20, 1807–May 03, 1807
404Marshall 4May 04, 1807–November 22, 1811
405Marshall 5November 23, 1811–February 02, 1812
406Marshall 6February 03, 1812–August 31, 1823
407Marshall 7September 01, 1823–June 15, 1826
408Marshall 8June 16, 1826–January 10, 1830
409Marshall 9January 11, 1830–January 13, 1835
410Marshall 10January 14, 1835–March 27, 1836
501Taney 1March 28, 1836–May 11, 1836
502Taney 2May 12, 1836–April 30, 1837
503Taney 3May 01, 1837–January 08, 1838
504Taney 4January 09, 1838–January 09, 1842
505Taney 5January 10, 1842–February 26, 1845
506Taney 6February 27, 1845–September 22, 1845
507Taney 7September 23, 1845–August 09, 1846
508Taney 8August 10, 1846–October 09, 1851
509Taney 9October 10, 1851–April 10, 1853
510Taney 10April 11, 1853–January 20, 1858
511Taney 11January 21, 1858–January 26, 1862
512Taney 12January 27, 1862–July 20, 1862
513Taney 13July 21, 1862–December 09, 1862
514Taney 14December 10, 1862–May 19, 1863
515Taney 15May 20, 1863–December 14, 1864
601Chase 1December 15, 1864–March 13, 1870
602Chase 2March 14, 1870–January 08, 1873
603Chase 3January 09, 1873–March 03, 1874
701Waite 1March 04, 1874–December 09, 1877
702Waite 2December 10, 1877–January 04, 1881
703Waite 3January 05, 1881–May 16, 1881
704Waite 4May 17, 1881–January 08, 1882
705Waite 5January 09, 1882–April 02, 1882
706Waite 6April 03, 1882–January 17, 1888
707Waite 7January 18, 1888–October 07, 1888
801Fuller 1October 08, 1888–January 05, 1890
802Fuller 2January 06, 1890–January 04, 1891
803Fuller 3January 05, 1891–October 09, 1892
804Fuller 4October 10, 1892–March 03, 1893
805Fuller 5March 04, 1893–March 11, 1894
806Fuller 6March 12, 1894–January 05, 1896
807Fuller 7January 06, 1896–January 25, 1898
808Fuller 8January 26, 1898–December 07, 1902
809Fuller 9December 08, 1902–March 01, 1903
810Fuller 10March 02, 1903–December 16, 1906
811Fuller 11December 17, 1906–January 02, 1910
812Fuller 12January 03, 1910–October 09, 1910
813No Chief (Post-Fuller)October 10, 1910–December 18, 1910
901White 1December 19, 1910–March 17, 1912
902White 2March 18, 1912–October 11, 1914
903White 3October 12, 1914–June 04, 1916
904White 4June 05, 1916–October 08, 1916
905White 5October 09, 1916–July 10, 1921
1001Taft 1July 11, 1921–October 01, 1922
1002Taft 2October 02, 1922–January 01, 1923
1003Taft 3January 02, 1923–February 18, 1923
1004Taft 4February 19, 1923–March 01, 1925
1005Taft 5March 02, 1925–February 23, 1930
1101Hughes 1February 24, 1930–June 01, 1930
1102Hughes 2June 02, 1930–March 13, 1932
1103Hughes 3March 14, 1932–August 18, 1937
1104Hughes 4August 19, 1937–January 30, 1938
1105Hughes 5January 31, 1938–January 29, 1939
1106Hughes 6January 30, 1939–April 16, 1939
1107Hughes 7April 17, 1939–February 04, 1940
1108Hughes 8February 05, 1940–July 02, 1941
1201Stone 1July 03, 1941–February 15, 1943
1202Stone 2February 16, 1943–September 30, 1945
1203Stone 3October 01, 1945–June 23, 1946
1301Vinson 1June 24, 1946–August 23, 1949
1302Vinson 2August 24, 1949–October 11, 1949
1303Vinson 3October 12, 1949–October 04, 1953
1401Warren 1October 05, 1953–October 08, 1954
1402Warren 2October 09, 1954–March 27, 1955
1403Warren 3March 28, 1955–October 15, 1956
1404Warren 4October 16, 1956–February 24, 1957
1405Warren 5February 25, 1957–October 13, 1958
1406Warren 6October 14, 1958–March 24, 1962
1407Warren 7March 25, 1962–September 30, 1962
1408Warren 8October 01, 1962–October 03, 1965
1409Warren 9October 04, 1965–October 01, 1967
1410Warren 10October 02, 1967–May 13, 1969
1411Warren 11May 14, 1969–June 22, 1969
1501Burger 1June 23, 1969–June 08, 1970
1502Burger 2June 09, 1970–September 22, 1971
1503Burger 3September 23, 1971–January 06, 1972
1504Burger 4January 07, 1972–November 11, 1975
1505Burger 5November 12, 1975–December 18, 1975
1506Burger 6December 19, 1975–September 24, 1981
1507Burger 7September 25, 1981–September 25, 1986
1601Rehnquist 1September 26, 1986–June 25, 1987
1602Rehnquist 2June 26, 1987–February 17, 1988
1603Rehnquist 3February 18, 1988–September 30, 1990
1604Rehnquist 4October 01, 1990–October 06, 1991
1605Rehnquist 5October 07, 1991–August 09, 1993
1606Rehnquist 6August 10, 1993–August 02, 1994
1607Rehnquist 7August 03, 1994–September 28, 2005
1701Roberts 1September 29, 2005–January 30, 2006
1702Roberts 2January 31, 2006–August 08, 2009
1703Roberts 3August 09, 2009–August 06, 2010
1704Roberts 4August 07, 2010–February 13, 2016
1705Roberts 5February 14, 2016–April 09, 2017
1706Roberts 6April 10, 2017–October 05, 2018
1707Roberts 7October 06, 2018–September 18, 2020
1708Roberts 8September 19, 2020–October 26, 2020
1709Roberts 9October 27, 2020–June 29, 2022
1710Roberts 10June 30, 2022–