Few Americans have any real idea how the Supreme Court operates, since cameras are barred, and the case arguments and opinions are often dry and confusing for non-lawyers. That’s too bad because the high court’s impact on Americans is incalculable. When disputes arise, the nine justices serve as the final word for a nation built on the rule of law. They interpret the constitution and all that it brings with it: how Americans conduct themselves in society, boundaries for individuals and the government, questions literally of life and death.

The constitution’s framers envisioned the judiciary as the weakest, least dangerous branch of government. And while the court has often been accused over the years of being too timid in asserting its power, there is little doubt that when the justices choose to flex their judicial muscle, the results can be far-reaching. Just look at how cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954 — integrating public schools), Roe v. Wade (1973 — legalising abortion) and even Bush v. Gore (2000) have affected the lives of Americans.

First meeting

The Supreme Court first met in 1790, as the ultimate part of the judicial branch of government. There are nine justices, led by the Chief Justice of the United State. All justices — and all federal judges — are first nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate. They serve for as long as they choose. The court has occupied its current building in Washington only since 1935. Previously, it borrowed space in Senate chambers in the Capitol Building.

Who is appointed?

The President of the United States nominates judges, but the nomination must be approved by 60 members of the 100-seat US Senate. Once appointed, there is no term limit.

The other eight members

Elena Kagan

On the court since August 7, 2010. Kagan grew up in New York City. After law school at Harvard, she clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall. After a successful stint as the first female dean of Harvard Law School, she was briefly US solicitor general — the federal government’s top representative at the US Supreme Court, before being nominated by President Barack Obama for the high court. Liberal.

Sonia Sotomayor

On the court since August 8, 2009. Sotomayor was born to Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx. As a student at Princeton University, she fought for hiring more Latino professors and admitting more Latino students. After Yale Law school, she became a prosecutor in New York and was later named to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appeals courts are often the final step before the Supreme Court for cases. In the second circuit, Sotomayor authored more than 150 majority opinions — including a few that were ultimately overruled by the higher court. Liberal.

Samuel Alito

On the court since January 31, 2006. Alito grew up in New Jersey in an Italian immigrant family. While at Princeton University, he was involved in conservative and libertarian groups, as well as the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. After Yale law school, he was a prosecutor in New Jersey and served in the Reagan administration in the justice department, including as assistant to the solicitor general, where he argued before the Supreme Court. President George H. Bush named him to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990, where he stayed until his nomination to The Supreme Court. Conservative.

John Roberts

On the court since September 29, 2005. Born in New York and raised in Indiana, Roberts attended a boarding school as a teenager but also spent summers working in a steel mill. After considering becoming a historian at Harvard, he went to law school there instead, eventually clerking for then-Associate Justice Rehnquist. He spent many years as a lawyer in the Reagan administration, then entered private practice, arguing before the high court and serving as one of several legal advisers to George W. Bush in the Florida presidential recount case. Originally nominated to fill the spot left by retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Roberts was re-nominated for the chief justice position after Chief Justice Rehnquist died between terms, and his nomination was fast-tracked. Conservative.

Stephen Breyer

On the court since August 3, 1994. Breyer grew up in San Francisco with a lawyer father and a politically active mother, attending Stanford, then Harvard Law. After clerking for Justice Arthur Goldberg, he moved into government, working as counsel in various positions in Congress, including as an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation. He spent a lengthy period of time on the First Circuit Court of Appeals and was considered for a Supreme Court nomination in 1991. It went to Ruth Bader Ginsburg instead. President Bill Clinton went back to Breyer when Justice Blackmun retired from the court in 1994. Conservative.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

On the court since August 10, 1993. Another New Yorker, Ginsburg stayed in the state to attend Cornell and eventually transferred to Columbia Law School after first enrolling at Harvard. She was rejected from a Supreme Court clerkship after graduating because of her gender, according to the New York Times. As she moved into a teaching and litigating career, Ginsburg focused on women’s rights — starting the first law journal focused on the topic and arguing six cases before the Supreme Court. She was confirmed to the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia in 1980 and 13 years later, was nominated by President Bill Clinton for a seat at the top court. Liberal.

Clarence Thomas

On the court since October 23, 1991. Thomas was born in a small town in Georgia, and was one of the few African-Americans in attendance during a short stint in seminary and then at Holy Cross College. But unlike Justice Sotomayor, those experiences made him distrustful of affirmative action policies. After finishing Yale Law, he worked in Missouri government and in Washington DC before being named chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an agency that responds to discrimination claims in the workplace. After a bruising confirmation hearing — in which a former employee accused him of sexual harassment — Thomas was narrowly confirmed to Supreme Court, at the relatively young age of 43. Thomas remains the only current black justice. Conservative.

Anthony Kennedy

On the court since February 18, 1988. A Californian who grew up in a legal family, Kennedy attended Stanford University and LSE before going on to law school and taking over his father’s practice. His work with then-California governor Ronald Reagan led Reagan to recommend him for an appeals court position — a job he took at 39, as the youngest federal appeals court judge in the country at the time. Initially passed over for a Supreme Court nomination, Reagan again turned to him after his initial candidate, Robert Bork, was rejected by the Senate. Swing.

— With inputs from agencies