Supreme Court Justices Without Prior Judicial Experience Before Becoming Justices
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| Name of Justice | Prior Occupations | Years On Court | Appointed By President: |
| Elena Kagan | U.S. Solicitor General | 2010-present | Obama |
| William Rehnquist | Asst. U.S. Attorney General | 1972-2005 | Nixon (Assoc., 1972), Reagan (Chief, 1986) |
| Lewis Powell | President of the American Bar Ass'n, Private Practice |
1972-1987 | Nixon |
| Abe Fortas | Private Practice | 1965-1969 | Johnson |
| Byron White | Deputy U.S. Attorney General | 1962-1993 | Kennedy |
| Arthur Goldberg | U.S. Secretary of Labor | 1962-1965 | Kennedy |
| Earl Warren | Governor of California | 1953-1969 | Eisenhower |
| Tom Clark | U.S. Attorney General | 1949-1967 | Truman |
| Harold Burton | U.S. Senator | 1945-1958 | Truman |
| Robert Jackson | U.S. Attorney General | 1941-1954 | F. Roosevelt |
| James Francis Byrnes | U.S. Senator | 1941-1942 | F. Roosevelt |
| William O. Douglas | Chairman of the S.E.C. | 1939-1975 | F. Roosevelt |
| Felix Frankfurter | Asst. U.S. Attorney, Asst. Secretary of War, Prof. of Law at Harvard |
1939-1962 | F. Roosevelt |
| Stanley Forman Reed | U.S. Solicitor General | 1938-1957 | F. Roosevelt |
| Owen Josephus Roberts | Special Counsel in "Teapot Dome" investigation and trials | 1930-1945 | Hoover |
| Harlan Fiske Stone | U.S. Attorney General | 1925-1946 | Coolidge (Assoc., 1925), F. Roosevelt (Chief, 1941) |
| Pierce Butler | County Attorney, Private Practice | 1923-1939 | Harding |
| George Sutherland | U.S. Senator | 1922-1938 | Harding |
| Louis Brandeis | Private Practice | 1916-1939 | Wilson |
| James Clark McReynolds | U.S. Attorney General | 1914-1941 | Wilson |
| Charles Evans Hughes | Governor of New York, U.S. Secretary of State |
1910-1916, 1930-1941 |
Taft (Assoc., 1910), Hoover (Chief, 1930) |
| William Henry Moody | U.S. Attorney General | 1906-1910 | T. Roosevelt |
| George Shiras, Jr | Private Practice | 1892-1903 | Harrison |
| Melville Fuller | Private Practice | 1888-1910 | Cleveland |
| Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar | U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Senator | 1888-1893 | Cleveland |
| Joseph Philo Bradley | Private Practice | 1870-1892 | Grant |
| Salmon P. Chase | U.S. Treasury Secretary | 1864-1873 | Lincoln |
| Samuel Freeman Miller | Private Practice | 1862-1890 | Lincoln |
| Noah Haynes Swayne | U.S. Attorney for Ohio, Ohio Legislator | 1862-1881 | Lincoln |
| Nathan Clifford | Maine & U.S. Attorney General | 1858-1881 | Buchanan |
| John Archibald Campbell | Alabama Legislator | 1853-1861 | Pierce |
| Benjamin Robbins Curtis | Massachusetts Legislator | 1851-1857 | Fillmore |
| John McKinley | U.S. Senator | 1838-1852 | Van Buren |
| Roger Brooke Taney | Maryland & U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Treasury Secretary |
1836-1864 | Jackson |
| Henry Baldwin | U.S. Congressman | 1830-1844 | Jackson |
| Joseph Story | Speaker of Mass. House of Reps., U.S. Congressman | 1812-1845 | Madison |
| John Marshall | U.S. Secretary of State | 1801-1835 | Adams |
| Bushrod Washington | Virginia House of Delegates, Reporter for Virginia Court of Appeals |
1799-1829 | Adams |
| William Paterson | Governor of New Jersey | 1793-1806 | Washington |
| John Jay | President of the Continental Congress, U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs |
1789-1795 | Washington |
| John Rutledge | Governor of South Carolina | 1789-1791, 1795 | Washington |
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