A trivia challenge for the SCOCA staff attorneys

Judicial staff attorneys are talented public servants who dedicate their lives to quiet service behind the scenes. To celebrate California’s reopening and give them a bit of post-pandemic fun for the upcoming holiday weekend, we prepared a SCOCA justices trivia quiz.

We will post the answers on Fri 30 Jul 2021, so anyone can play along. Having researched our answers and checked them with authoritative sources (be nice to your local law librarians!) we are confident in their accuracy. But we’re good sports and truth seekers, so if the staff attorneys can demonstrate that their answer to a question is more right than ours, we will concede that in the answer article.

The questions:

  1. The only justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
  2. The only justice born in 1700s.
  3. The first justice born in the 1900s.
  4. The longest serving justice.
  5. The youngest justice when appointed.
  6. The shortest tenure as Chief Justice.
  7. What number Chief Justice is the current Chief Justice?
  8. The current justices who share a birthday (in different years).
  9. The only justice elected without his knowledge after being nominated in absentia while traveling in Europe.
  10. The only member of the 5-member court retained for the new 7-member court.
  11. The justice seated after the longest vacancy.
  12. The only two siblings to serve as justices.
  13. How many individuals have served as justices?
  14. The only justice to serve three separate, distinct terms.
  15. Two justices who died on the same day.
  16. The first justice with a verifiable law degree.
  17. The last justice who never earned a law degree.
  18. The most justices earned law degrees from this school.
  19. This justice’s father founded the Alaska Commercial Company.
  20. This justice cofounded the Sierra Club (and was later expelled from the Sierra Club).
  21. Bonus question, for the win: The only justice to stab a man (who lived), shoot a man (who died), and be shot dead by a federal marshal. (If you get this wrong you all must resign in shame.)

The rules:

  • Only current SCOCA judicial staff attorneys (chambers and central) may participate.
  • You may collaborate among each other, and you must produce one set of answers.
  • You must use only your personal knowledge — no research.
  • You must email your answers to David A. Carrillo by noon PDT on Fri 23 Jul 2021.

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