 All but a handful of Supreme Court justices have been married . Frank Murphy , Benjamin Cardozo , and James McReynolds were all lifelong bachelors . In addition , retired justice David Souter and current justice Elena Kagan have never been married . William O. Douglas was the first Justice to divorce while on the Court , and also had the most marriages of any Justice , with four . Justice John Paul Stevens divorced his first wife in 1979 , marrying his second wife later that year . Sonia Sotomayor was the first female justice to be appointed as an unmarried woman , having divorced in 1983 , long before her nomination in 2009 . 
