THE JUSTICES:

_ Chief Justice William Rehnquist: Nominated by President Nixon and sworn in Jan. 7, 1972. Nominated for chief justice by President Reagan and sworn in Sept. 26, 1986. A conservative, Rehnquist, 76, favors states' rights over broad federal government powers and opposes abortion. He served in Nixon's Justice Department before joining the court and was active in party politics.

_ Justice John Paul Stevens: Nominated by President Ford and sworn in Dec. 17, 1975. He was a lawyer in private practice and a federal appeals judge before joining the high court. Seen as a solidly middle-of-the-road choice when he joined the court, Stevens, 80, is now viewed as a liberal. Court watchers say this is more a function of the court's rightward shift than of a change in Stevens' views. He has voted against broadening police powers and in favor of abortion rights.

_ Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: Nominated by Reagan as the first woman on the court and sworn in Sept. 25, 1981. Before joining the court, O'Connor, 70, was active in Republican politics in Arizona, including a stint as majority leader of the Arizona state Senate. At the time of her nomination, O'Connor was a state-level appeals judge with a reputation for meticulous, conservative rulings. On the high court, she is considered a swing vote.

_ Justice Antonin Scalia: Nominated by Reagan and sworn in Sept. 26, 1986. Before joining the court, Scalia, 64, was already defined as a strong conservative over four years as a federal appeals judge in Washington. He has a freewheeling style during oral arguments and is the court cutup. He opposes abortion, and wanted to grant independent counsel Kenneth Starr access to notes of a meeting between the late Clinton White House aide Vincent Foster and his lawyer.

_ Justice Anthony Kennedy: Nominated as Reagan's third choice for the seat the president had hoped to fill with conservative theorist Robert Bork. Sworn in Feb. 18, 1988, Kennedy, 64, was a California law professor before becoming a federal appeals judge. He has emerged as the high court's key swing vote.

_ Justice David Souter: Nominated by President Bush and sworn in Oct. 9, 1990. At the time of his nomination, Souter, now 61, was a virtual unknown, a government lawyer with few writings and no known public stances on abortion or other hot-button topics. He quickly became a disappointment to conservatives and now sides regularly with the court's liberal wing.

_ Justice Clarence Thomas: Nominated by Bush and sworn in Oct. 23, 1991, after the most bitter nomination fight since the Bork hearings. An opponent of affirmative action, Thomas, 52, had served in the Reagan administration and as a federal appeals judge. He is best known for calling the partisan free-for-all over his nomination a "high-tech lynching."

_ Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Nominated by President Clinton and sworn in Aug. 10, 1993. A law professor and former general counsel of the liberal American Civil Liberties Union, she was a vocal legal advocate for women's rights. As a private lawyer, she argued six women's rights cases before the high court in the 1970s and won five. Ginsburg, 67, is a stalwart of the court's liberal wing.

_ Justice Stephen Breyer: Nominated by Clinton and sworn in Aug. 3, 1994. He is a former Watergate prosecutor and government lawyer who also taught law and was a federal appeals judge when chosen for the court. Breyer, 62, is a consensus-builder who dislikes dissenting opinions.

THE LAWYERS:

_ Theodore Olson: George W. Bush's chief lawyer is a former assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration and partner in the Washington law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Olson also has argued more than a dozen cases before the high court. He is a close friend and ex-law partner of former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, and represented David Hale, a witness in the Whitewater land deal investigation headed by Starr. Olson also represented the Virginia Military Institute in its attempt to remain all-male, and four white students in Texas in a case that led to the end of affirmative action at University of Texas law school.

_ David Boies: Al Gore's chief lawyer is known for his courtroom charm, inexpensive blue suits and the black sneakers he often wears to court. Boies won the government's antitrust case against software giant Microsoft Corp. He most recently represented the music-swapping firm Napster in its fight to stay in business. Boies also has been retained by cigarette maker Philip Morris to help defend it against a $69 billion lawsuit by tobacco growers in 14 states. Gore, an anti-smoking advocate who hails from tobacco-producing Tennessee, has been a harsh critic of tobacco companies.

Boies often works without notes and has been praised for a remarkable memory. He once appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court without a scrap of paper in front of him.

A Yale Law School graduate, Boies left a big New York firm to start his own litigation practice in suburban Armonk. He took a pay cut to lead the Microsoft case two years ago, agreeing first to $250 an hour _ about half his usual rate _ and then to a flat $104,000 annual salary.

_ Joseph P. Klock Jr.: Lawyer for Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican, and other members of the state elections board.

(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)