United States Supreme Court Justice Cards

***Update*** I’ve updated these Supreme Court Justice Cards to include Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett!

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Never mind your kids for a minute…If you live in the United States, do you know all your Supreme Court justices? My kiddos are WAY too young to find these cards and the associated game useful, but as a U.S. citizen and a grown-up, and especially after all the excitement that’s been going on in the Court recently, I wanted to make sure I knew them all. After all, these are some of the most influential people in the U.S.

You’ve probably heard of Chief Justice John Roberts. If you’ve been paying attention to politics recently, you’ve also probably heard of the Notorious RBG and Antonin Scalia of “jiggery-pokery” fame. You might also know that the only current African American member of the Court is Clarence Thomas and, as a Hispanic female, personally I took note when Sonia Sotomayor was nominated. However, I had no idea Kennedy was such a liberal-leaning conservative. Breyer never even showed up on my radar until this latest session when he read a second impassioned dissent in the recent death penalty case. I probably heard that there was a third female Justice serving on the Supreme Court at some point, but I had completely forgot about Kagan. Honestly, I thought Scalia and Alito were the same person.

If you’re like me and getting your Justices mixed up, I’m hoping these Supreme Court Justice cards will help. By combining them with the control cards, you (or your kids) can use them as a self-correcting exercise in matching the name/bio cards to the pictures. You can also use them for a two-player memory style matching game. Just imagine how smart you’ll feel at the next dinner party you attend. Just kidding. :)

In case you’re interested in some of the recent happenings at the Supreme Court, here are summaries of the biggest decisions that occurred within the last month:

• Obergefell v. Hodges – In a historic 5 to 4 decision with Anthony Kennedy joining the liberal-leaning Justices, the Court declared that states could not ban same-sex marriage thereby ensuring marriage equality for all.
• King v. Burwell – In a 6 to 3 decision with Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts joining the more liberal justices, the Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
• Glossip v. Gross – In a 5 to 4 decision with all the conservative-leaning justices banding together, the Court ruled that it was NOT considered cruel and unusual punishment to use a controversial lethal injection drug. In a surprising and unusual deviation from normal protocol, 2 dissents were read out loud by members of the liberal minority.

Recommended Age Range: Elementary, Middle School, High School
Time Required: ~15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable, less than $2 in used supplies if you choose to laminate

Materials:

• paper (for printing Supreme Court Justice cards and associated control cards)
• laminating pouches (optional)

Supplies & Tools:

• laminator (optional)
• paper cutter (or scissors)

Instructions:

1. Print the Supreme Court Justice Cards and Control Cards. (Note that only the first 3 pages of each document need to be printed as the last 2 pages contain legal information about sharing and image sources.)
2. Laminate them. (Or don’t.)
   
3. Cut them out.
   

HAPPY LEARNING!

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