Article III, Section I of the Constitution provides: “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” In another part of the Constitution, it refers to a “Chief Justice” of the Court, as the person who shall preside over impeachment proceedings of the president. Article I, Section III—the part of Article I that describes the powers of the Senate—provides: “When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside.”
The Chief Justices in U.S. Supreme Court History
| Chief Justice |
Years as Chief |
| John Jay |
1789–1795 |
| John Rutledge |
1795 |
| Oliver Ellsworth |
1796–1800 |
| John Marshall |
1801–1835 |
| Roger Taney |
1836–1864 |
| Salmon P. Chase |
1864–1873 |
| Morrison Waite |
1874–1888 |
| Melville W. Fuller |
1888–1910 |
| Edward White |
1910–1921 |
| William Howard Taft |
1921–1930 |
| Charles Evans Hughes |
1930–1941 |
| Harlan Fiske Stone |
1941–1946 |
| Fred Vinson |
1946–1953 |
| Earl Warren |
1953–1969 |
| Warren Burger |
1969–1986 |
| William Rehnquist |
1986–2005 |
| John G. Roberts Jr. |
2005– |
