 The demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States encompass the gender , ethnicity , and religious , geographic , and economic backgrounds of the 112 people who have been appointed as justices to the Supreme Court . Certain of these characteristics have been raised as an issue since the Court was established in 1789 . For its first 180 years , justices were almost always white male Protestants . Prior to the 20th century , a few Roman Catholics were appointed , but concerns about diversity of the Court were mainly in terms of geographic diversity , to represent all geographic regions of the country , as opposed to ethnic , religious , or gender diversity . The 20th century saw the first appointment of a Jewish justice ( Louis Brandeis , 1916 ) , an African @-@ American ( Thurgood Marshall , 1967 ) , an Italian @-@ American ( Antonin Scalia , 1986 ) , and a woman ( Sandra Day O 'Connor , 1981 ) . The 21st century saw the first appointment of a Hispanic justice ( Sonia Sotomayor , 2009 ) if Benjamin Cardozo , 1932 , is excluded ( see the discussion below ) . 
