Article Three of the Constitution leaves a great number of specifics about the Federal judiciary up to later developments. "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish," is the most detail it gives about specific courts. Thus, the U.S. Supreme Court hears cases that have been through all levels of Federal appeals courts as well as through State appeals courts.

Members of the federal judiciary are always appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They are never elected, and they serve lifelong terms unless they are impeached. Also, Congress decides how many justices to place in the Supreme Court, but the Judiciary Act of 1869 fixed the number at nine.

The Chief Justice as of January 1, 2015 was John G. Roberts. He was preceded by William Rehnquist, who was preceded by Warren Burger, who was preceded by Earl Warren. Roberts was nominated to the position of Chief Justice by George W. Bush and took his seat in 2005. He is known to be conservative and to adhere to tradition and precedent.

The first woman appointed to the Supreme Court was Sandra Day O’Connor, in 1981, by President Ronald Reagan.

There are nine Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States. There were originally six Justices—although this creates the obvious problem that there would be frequent instances of ties; however, it has been set at nine Justices for the majority of its history. The number of Supreme Court Justices is determined by Congress, not by the Constitution.

There are two reasons why the Constitutional Framers decided to make Supreme Court Justice positions unelected and tenured. The first is part of the system of checks and balances that pervades the American political process—if Justices cannot be removed from office by the Legislative or Executive Branch, then there is an additional layer of balancing of power. This is not an answer choice, however. The second reason is that the Constitutional Framers wanted Justices to be able to make intelligent and sound decisions, free from the corrupting influence of being accountable to the public. If Supreme Court Justices were elected, they would have to make their decisions based on what would get them elected—rather than trying to shape public policy and opinion, they would be subject to both.

The Solicitor General is a member of the United States Justice Department and is tasked with taking up the position of the United States Government in any Supreme Court case that involves it as either the defendant or the claimant. The Solicitor General also reviews lower cases decided against the United States Government and determines whether the government will contest the ruling in the Supreme Court.

In the United States Federal court system, the district courts are where the vast majority of court cases are heard and resolved. They are the lowest level of the Federal court system.

Court packing was the colloquial term given to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempts to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court in the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937. Roosevelt wanted to add more liberal judges to the Supreme Court to further enable the passage of his New Deal legislation.

The current make-up of the Supreme Court is nine justices. The number of Justices has not been stipulated by the Supreme Court. Congressional acts have determined the number of justices and the current number of nine was set in 1869.