 In 2008 , seven of the nine sitting justices were millionaires , and the remaining two were close to that level of wealth . Historian Howard Zinn , in his 1980 book A People 's History of the United States , argues that the justices cannot be neutral in matters between rich and poor , as they are almost always from the upper class . Chief Justice Roberts is the son of an executive with Bethlehem Steel ; Justice Stevens was born into a wealthy Chicago family ; and Justices Kennedy and Breyer both had fathers who were successful attorneys . Justices Alito and Scalia both had educated ( and education @-@ minded ) parents : Scalia 's father was a highly educated college professor and Alito 's father was a high school teacher before becoming " a long @-@ time employee of the New Jersey state legislature " . Only Justices Thomas and Sotomayor have been regarded as coming from a lower @-@ class background . One authority states that " Thomas grew up in poverty . The Pin Point community he lived in lacked a sewage system and paved roads . Its inhabitants dwelled in destitution and earned but a few cents each day performing manual labor " . The depth of Thomas ' poverty has been disputed by suggestions of " ample evidence to suggest that Thomas enjoyed , by and large , a middle @-@ class upbringing " . 
