A look at the justices and lawyers in the U.S. Supreme Court case over the disputed presidential election in Florida:
THE JUSTICES:
Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 76, was nominated to the court by Richard Nixon and sworn in Jan. 7, 1972. He was nominated for chief justice by Ronald Reagan and sworn in Sept. 26, 1986.
A conservative, he 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, 80, was nominated by Gerald 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 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, 70, was nominated by Reagan as the first woman on the court. She was sworn in Sept. 25, 1981. O'Connor was active in Republican politics in Arizona before joining the court, 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, 64, was nominated by Reagan and sworn in Sept. 26, 1986. Before joining the high court, Scalia 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 also 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, 64, was nominated to the court as Reagan's third choice for the open seat Reagan had wanted conservative theorist Robert Bork to fill. He was sworn in Feb. 18, 1988. He 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, 61, was nominated by George Bush and sworn in Oct. 9, 1990. He was a virtual unknown, a government lawyer with few writings and no known public stances on abortion or other hot-button topics. Souter quickly became a disappointment to conservatives and now sides regularly with the court's liberal wing.
Justice Clarence Thomas, 52, was nominated by Bush and sworn in Oct. 23, 1991, after the most bitter nomination fight since the Bork hearings. An opponent of affirmative action, he 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, 67, was 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 court in the 1970s and won five of them. She is a stalwart of the court's liberal wing.
Justice Stephen Breyer, 62, was nominated by Clinton and sworn in Aug. 3, 1994 as the court's newest member. A former Watergate prosecutor and government lawyer, he also taught law and was a federal appeals judge when selected for the court. He 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 a Washington law firm. Olson has argued 13 cases before the court. He is a close friend and ex-law partner of former independent counsel Starr, and represented David Hale, a witness in the Whitewater land deal investigation headed by Starr. He 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.
Laurence Tribe, Al Gore's chief lawyer, is a constitutional scholar at Harvard University Law School who has argued 29 cases before the court. He is a liberal activist who frequently is mentioned as a potential Supreme Court justice in a Democratic administration. He helped lead attacks on one-time Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, who was rejected by the Senate after being nominated by President Reagan.
Paul Hancock is a Florida lawyer for the state's Democratic attorney general, Bob Butterworth.
Joseph Klock is a Florida lawyer for the state's Republican secretary of state, Katherine Harris, and the other members of the state elections board.