The kernel of this list germinated with the appointment of Judge John Roberts as Supreme Court Chief Justice in 2005 (pictured with President Bush). He was the seventeenth US Supreme Court Chief Justice and one of the younger appointments at merely fifty. 

Several American lawyers raised concerns about his youth and closeness to the President who nominated him.

Being a non-American it seemed a reason to learn more about US Supreme Court judges. Analysis turns out to be fairly widespread but to contain little available information on the tenure or background of judges in an easy-to-follow spreadsheet (MS Excel format). Following therefore is an offering to legal students and other researchers needing a spreadsheet showing all the US Supreme Court judges, their race and gender, where they come from, and how old they were at critical times in their career. 

It is also an interpretation of five key problems which seem obvious and worrying about US Supreme Court judges. Look closely and the problem with Judge Roberts is not that he is too young. His relatively young age is a good thing. The problem is that Judge Roberts is neither female nor black. The new Chief Justice also comes from Maryland in the north-east of America which is a way-too-traditional recruiting ground of the US Supreme Court.

Problem 1:
Supreme Court judges are appointed too late in life
Here's a surprising reality: in the life of the United States of America, over two tumultuous centuries plus, there has been no meaningful change in the stage of life when Supreme Court judges commence their post. It is almost exactly at three-quarters through their biological life. Amazingly this is consistent through the last three centuries despite increases in longevity.  

Problem 2:
Too many Supreme Court judges become Chief Justice immediately
President George Washington appointed Judge John Jay as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1789. Since then there have been sixteen Chief Justices, or 'courts'. Yet only three Chief Justice’s have first served as judges: White (confirmed 1894, Chief Justice 1910, +16 years) Stone (confirmed 1925, Chief Justice 1941, +16 years) and Rehnquist (confirmed 1972, Chief Justice 1986, +14 years). The remainder, which is to say the vast majority, have assumed the most senior role immediately on entering the court. Why is this? Why does the the Supreme Court not follow usual practuces of expecting people to first prove themselves in more junior roles?  

Problem 3:
Supreme Court judges stay too long
Unlike modern America, and indeed distinct from much of the world, most American Supreme Court judges stay right until the end of life. Dying in office is especially fashionable: half of Supreme Court judges do so. A fifth die in 'senior service' – a late twentieth century assignation meaning they were assisting with court work when they died, although not on the main court itself. 

Only one third of judges leave under normal conditions of resignation (they stopped working on the Supreme Court but continued elsewhere) or retirement (stopped working altogether). 

Problem 4:
Supreme Court judges are not geographically representative of the Union
Of the first one hundred or so US Supreme Court judges, most emerged from a core of American states. The most senior judges have emerged from a very narrow geogaphical constituency. Only 11 American states can claim a Chief Justice and these are heavily concentrated around Washington DC, the capital. Ohio and New York each account for three Chief Justices and Virginia and Maryland two each.

Not until the 1860s, nearly a century into the Union, was there a Supreme Court judge from the west coast. Not until the 1950s, nearly two centuries into the Union, was there a Chief Justice from the west (the Warren Court).

Over one-third of American states have never had a Supreme Court judge. This ranges from Florida in the south to the Dakotas to Oregon in the west and Alaska and Hawaii in the Pacific area. 

Problem 5:
Supreme Court judges are not demographically representative of the Union
Finally and most vividly the US Supreme Court has been a refuge of white males out of all proportions to America. This is a problem. For an obvious start, half of the American population are women yet only two women by the end of the 20th century have been confirmed for the US Supreme Court. Neither was a Chief Justice. 

Blacks make up around one-eighth of all Americans and Asians one-twentieth yet in two centuries there have been only two black Supreme Court judges: Marshall (appointed 1967) and Thomas (1991). There have been no Asians. For a country committed to the idea that all persons are born equal this is a biting indictment.