The United States Supreme Court is the highest federal court in the United States and the court of last resort for all cases arising under federal law and the Constitution. Established by Article III of the Constitution and given its current structure by the Judiciary Act of 1789, the Court consists of one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, all nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve during “good behaviour” - effectively lifetime tenure. It exercises original jurisdiction in a narrow class of cases and appellate jurisdiction over lower federal courts and state supreme courts when federal questions are at issue.
The Court's authority to strike down acts of Congress or executive actions as unconstitutional - judicial review - is not explicitly granted in the Constitution's text but has been exercised since Marbury v. Madison (1803), in which Chief Justice John Marshall established the principle. The Court's decisions are binding on all lower courts and, in practice, on the other branches of government. Enforcement of those decisions, however, depends on the executive branch, a structural feature that has occasionally produced friction. The Court hears a small fraction of the cases petitioned to it; it grants certiorari at its own discretion, typically accepting fewer than 100 cases per term.
The Court sits in Washington, D.C., and its term runs from the first Monday in October through late June or early July of the following year. Most of its work involves resolving splits among the federal circuit courts or deciding questions of constitutional or statutory interpretation that lower courts have not resolved consistently.
As of 2025, the Court consists of a majority of justices appointed by Republican presidents - six to three - following the confirmations of Neil Gorsuch (2017), Brett Kavanaugh (2018), Amy Coney Barrett (2020), and Ketanji Brown Jackson (2022). John Roberts has served as Chief Justice since 2005. The composition of the Court shifted in a more conservative direction following the retirement of Anthony Kennedy in 2018 and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020. Whether and how that shift has changed the Court's jurisprudence is a matter of ongoing legal and political debate. See United States Supreme Court - Debate.
The Court has long been the site of fundamental disagreements about constitutional interpretation. Originalism holds that the Constitution should be interpreted according to its original public meaning or the intent of its framers; living constitutionalism holds that constitutional meaning evolves with changing social conditions. Both approaches have adherents among sitting justices and legal scholars. See Originalism and Living Constitutionalism.
The Court's legitimacy and independence are also contested. Critics on the left argue that recent decisions reflect political rather than legal reasoning; critics on the right have made similar arguments about earlier eras of the Court. Proposals to reform the Court - including expanding the number of justices, imposing term limits, or establishing a mandatory ethics code - are discussed in United States Supreme Court Reform - Debate.
The Court has issued decisions that have substantially shaped American law and society across a wide range of domains. Frequently cited cases include Marbury v. Madison (1803) on judicial review, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) on federal supremacy, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) on citizenship and slavery, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) on racial segregation, Roe v. Wade (1973) and Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) on abortion rights, Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) on same-sex marriage, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) on the right to bear arms. These decisions and their significance are treated individually and in context on their respective topic pages.