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Benjamin Robbins Curtis
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States · 1851
Benjamin Robbins Curtis , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Benjamin Robbins Curtis 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.
Positions
- Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States1851-09-22–1857-09-30
Education
- Harvard Law School
- Harvard UniversityA.B., 1829
Career
Private practice, Northfield, Massachusetts, 1831-1834; Private practice, Boston, Massachusetts, 1834-1851, 1857-1874
Biography
Benjamin Robbins Curtis 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.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
More
From Senate roll call votes, Wikidata, Wikipedia and Office of Government Ethics records.
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Capitol Receipts, “Benjamin Robbins Curtis : Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of…,” https://www.capitolreceipts.com/appointee/j547/benjamin-robbins-curtis (accessed 2026-10-13).