<P> Historically, most justices have been Protestants, including 36 Episcopalians, 19 Presbyterians, 10 Unitarians, 5 Methodists, and 3 Baptists . The first Catholic justice was Roger Taney in 1836, and 1916 saw the appointment of the first Jewish justice, Louis Brandeis . In recent years the historical situation has reversed . Most recent justices have been either Catholic or Jewish . </P> <P> Racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in the Court began to increase in the late 20th century . Thurgood Marshall became the first African American justice in 1967 . Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice in 1981 . Marshall was succeeded by African - American Clarence Thomas in 1991 . O'Connor was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 . After O'Connor's retirement Ginsburg was joined in 2009 by Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and Latina justice, and in 2010 by Elena Kagan, for a total of four female justices in the Court's history . </P> <P> There have been six foreign - born justices in the Court's history: James Wilson (1789--1798), born in Caskardy, Scotland; James Iredell (1790--1799), born in Lewes, England; William Paterson (1793--1806), born in County Antrim, Ireland; David Brewer (1889--1910), born in Smyrna, Turkey; George Sutherland (1922--1939), born in Buckinghamshire, England; and Felix Frankfurter (1939--1962), born in Vienna, Austria . </P> <P> There are currently four living retired justices of the Supreme Court of the United States: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter . As retired justices, they no longer participate in the work of the Supreme Court, but may be designated for temporary assignments to sit on lower federal courts, usually the United States Courts of Appeals . Such assignments are formally made by the Chief Justice, on request of the chief judge of the lower court and with the consent of the retired justice . In recent years, Justice O'Connor has sat with several Courts of Appeals around the country, and Justice Souter has frequently sat on the First Circuit, the court of which he was briefly a member before joining the Supreme Court . </P>

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