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Thomas Todd

Thomas Todd

Supreme Court of the United States

Born 1765 in King and Queen County, VA

Died 1826 in Frankfort, KY

FJC ID: 2395

Thomas Todd (January 23, 1765 – February 7, 1826) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1807 to 1826. Raised in the Colony of Virginia, he studied law and later participated in the founding of Kentucky, where he served as a clerk, judge, and justice. He was married twice and had a total of eight children. Todd joined the U.S. Supreme Court in 1807 and his handful of legal opinions there mostly concerned land claims. He was labeled the most insignificant U.S. Supreme Court justice by Frank H. Easterbrook in The Most Insignificant Justice: Further Evidence, 50 U. Chi. L. Rev. 481 (1983).

Gender
Male
Race
White

Prior employment

  1. Supreme Court of Kentucky
    Chief justice · 1806–1807
  2. Kentucky Court of Appeals
    Judge · 1801–1806
  3. Private practice, Danville, Kentucky
    1788–1801
  4. Kentucky House of Representatives
    Clerk · 1792–1801
  5. Kentucky Court of Appeals
    Clerk · 1799–1801
  6. Kentucky constitutional conventions
    Clerk · 1792, 1799
  7. Lexington [Kentucky] Democratic Society
    Clerk · 1793–1794
  8. conventions seeking statehood for Kentucky
    Clerk · 1784–1792
  9. U.S. District Court, District of Kentucky
    Clerk · 1789–1792
  10. Continental Army
    1779, 1781

Appointments

  1. Supreme Court of the United States
    1807–1826 · Appointed by Thomas Jefferson (Jeffersonian Republican)
    Term ended: Death

Education

  1. Read law
    1786
  2. Liberty Hall Academy (now Washington and Lee University)
    1783