The court as now constituted consists of 16 judges, appointed by the President and subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate for terms of 15 years.
In recent years, the court's docket has been increasingly characterized by complex, high-dollar demands, and high-profile cases in such areas as, for example, the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans, and the federal repository of civilian spent nuclear fuel.