As of 2024, 116 individuals had served as justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The total counts people who have held a seat on the Court since its creation under the Judiciary Act of 1789, not the number of seats or the number of justices serving at one time. The Court began with six members—one chief justice and five associate justices—and Congress eventually fixed its membership at nine in 1869.
The number 116 includes people who held different roles on the Court. Five justices first served as associate justice and later became chief justice: John Rutledge, Edward Douglass White, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan F. Stone, and William Rehnquist. They are counted as individuals, not counted twice.
The figure can cause confusion because there have been 17 chief justices and 104 associate justices as officeholders, while some people appear in both categories. It also differs from the current Court’s membership, which is nine justices. No new justice joined between the 2022 count of 116 and the end of 2024, so the stored answer remains correct.