answers: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
context: descended from Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who fled to Holland during the Spanish Inquisition then to London, before arriving in New York prior to the American Revolution. Justice Antonin Scalia, who served from 1986-2016, and Justice Samuel Alito, who has served since 2006, are the first justices of Italian descent to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia's father and both maternal grandparents as well as both of Justice Alito's parents were born in Italy. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born to a father who immigrated from Russia at age 13 and a mother who was born </s> Because justices have indefinite tenure, timing of vacancies can be unpredictable. Sometimes vacancies arise in quick succession, as in the early 1970s when Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William Rehnquist were nominated to replace Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan II, who retired within a week of each other. Sometimes a great length of time passes between nominations, such as the eleven years between Stephen Breyer's nomination in 1994 to succeed Harry Blackmun and the nomination of John Roberts in 2005 to fill the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor (though Roberts' nomination was withdrawn and resubmitted for the role of </s> Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and, by custom, is elected chancellor of the board. Since the Supreme Court was established in 1789, 17 people have served as chief justice. The first was John Jay (1789–1795). The current chief justice is John Roberts (since 2005). Edward Douglass White, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan Fiske Stone, and William Rehnquist were previously confirmed for associate justice and subsequently confirmed for chief justice separately. The United States Constitution does not explicitly establish an office of Chief Justice, but presupposes its existence with a single reference in : "When the President of the United
question: who is the oldest supreme court justice currently serving