Benjamin Robbins Curtis (November 4, 1809 – September 15, 1874) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1851 to 1857. Curtis was the only Whig justice of the Supreme Court, and he was the first Supreme Court justice to have a formal law degree. He is often remembered as one of the two dissenters in the Supreme Court's infamous 1857 decision Dred Scott v. Sandford.
Benjamin Robbins Curtis
Supreme Court of the United States
Born 1809 in Watertown, MA
Died 1874 in Newport, RI
FJC ID: 547
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Private practice, Boston, Massachusetts1834–1851, 1857–1874
- Private practice, Northfield, Massachusetts1831–1834
Appointments
1851–1857 · Appointed by Millard Fillmore (Whig)Term ended: Resignation
Education
- Harvard University
- Harvard UniversityA.B. · 1829