HW for 4/16: SCOTUS Justice Bios

As we transition this quarter into looking at more recent cases and the politics behind them, it will be useful to know something about the current justices sitting on the Court.  For homework, each of you will research and write up a little bit of biographical information about one of the current justices.  To make this simple, I've assigned each of you a justice:

Tamlyn: Chief Justice John Roberts

Josh: Samuel Alito

Chloe: Stephen Breyer

Alex: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Kienan: Anthony Kennedy

Kellen: Antonin Scalia

Murren: David Souter

Josie: John Paul Stevens

Andrew: Clarence Thomas 

There are only nine justices, but ten of you in class, so one of you gets a bonus non-current justice. So:

Lilly: Sandra Day O'Connor, the only retired justice who is still alive

Create a new blog post (not a comment on this post) with your justice's name as the title.  In the post, write a short biography.  Include the justice's age, what year and under which president they were appointed, and any details you find interesting about their life before and outside of the SCOTUS (where they grew up, what their hobbies are, etc.).  Also include any information you can about what they're like on the court -- do they tend to decide cases in favor of civil liberties, are they part of a typical voting bloc, what kinds of questions do they ask in oral arguments, etc.  Include anything else that you find interesting about the justice.  Finally, include a link to the text of an opinion (majority, concurring, or dissenting) that was authored by your justice.

Make your bio concise.

Wikipedia is a useful source, but not the most interesting source nor the final word on anything.  I encourage you to look farther afield.

And as usual with anything like this, don't directly quote anything without citing your source.